In His Image

It Finally Happened!!!

2006-10-29T15:20:00.000-06:00

For the last several months, I have been frustrated with the slow speed and all the hangups of Blogger. The worst being that I have no way to back up and save all my writings for my children's learning (and most likely, amusement!)

Then when Blogger went thru it's change here a few weeks ago, I was trying to help a friend design a web template and somehow, messed my own up and when I went to reinstate my saved version, Blogger refused to recognise it! Argh!

All that to say this, In His Image is moving! Come visit and I will tell you more why! (and that is where I will be from now on. :-)

Time for a Trip Again.

2006-09-17T16:28:00.000-05:00

Greetings from the sporadic writers guild! I must confess that the author of this blog hopes that the remainder of his life does not keep speeding up as it has the last couple years and especially this last summer!

August came and went and with it the 1st anniversary of A Stitch in Time’s founding. It also held another move for the business as the old location of 160 sq. feet was insufficient for it’s growth. I now have 270 sq. feet that is contiguous space and is only three-fourths of what I was spending. I moved the last week of August and only now feel like I may be getting settled in.

We are on the move again though. It has been two years since I have been east to see Aimee’s family and with her brother-in-law needing an addition to their trailer, thought that this would be a good time to make a quick trip into Virginia. We plan to leave this Friday after work and drive through the night since that is the best time to travel with small children anyway!! We will be in Ferrum, VA. for the next week before making a quick pass-through trip up to Harrisonburg and Lancaster, PA for a few days before heading home. We plan to return about the 4th of October.

On the humorous side, I had to stay home due to an illness and kept the four oldest children with me. They LOVE having story’s told to them so I decided to tell them several from my growing up days. The one was when I accidentally shot a ring-necked pheasant because I was not using my BB gun properly. So even though my boys are several years away from that right of passage, I decided it is not too early to start instilling in them the need for proper gun safety. After explaining that you never point the gun at something you do not want to shoot, we had a dialogue that went like this.

“Should you point the gun at the dog?”
“NO!”
“Should you point the gun at Grandpa’s chickens?”
“NO!”
“Should you point the gun at the clouds?”
“NOOOO!”
“Why not, son?”
“Because Jesus lives up there!”

We had just gotten done reading the Bible story were Jesus talks about coming in the clouds of glory.

Could you help us out here?
Last night I was going through some family pictures and I found one that I am not sure where it belongs? If you can help me identify them, I would appreciate it. :-)

I let you know what I come up with a few days! :-)

What's Wrong with It?

2006-08-29T05:59:00.000-05:00

During my growing up years, my father and I would have these discussions about whether something new was “right” or “wrong.”  I would inevitably ask, “What is wrong with it?” to which he sometimes did, or did not have an answer.  Now I have come to realize that the whole premise for the question is wrong.

To ask “what is wrong with it” is to imply that if it cannot be proven detrimental to me, then it must be ok for me.  But let’s take that premise and look at it from a different perspective.  Most of us have been to a hospital and to the pharmacy counters.  What if these doctors and nurses looked at the patient with an infection coursing through his body and then walked over to the list of medications and asked themselves, “what won’t hurt him?”  If that were the only standard for choosing the medication, there would be a host that they could prescribe!  But their goal is not just to avoid harming the patient; they are going to try their best to get the right medication that’s going to destroy the virus that is causing the patient the trouble.  With that in mind, the list of medications is much smaller, but is made up of ones that will help bring the patient to the goal of restored health!

We are all born with the infection of a sin nature.  When we accepted Christ into our lives, a terrible battle ensued between the spirit of our flesh and the implanted Spirit of Christ.  Paul talks of this so eloquently in Romans 7
19For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. 20Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 21I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. 22For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 23But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

Paul knew that this was not a hap-hazard conflict, it was a serious infection!  Yet so often I have looked at the state of my heart, and instead of trying to do that which strengthens the Spirit of Christ and puts down the spirit of the flesh, I have simply tried to avoid damaging the Holy Spirit’s presence by asking, “what is wrong with ‘it’.”  To my shame, for many years I walked in lukewarm Christianity because I was unwilling to do that which conquered the flesh, seeking only that which “was not detrimental to my spiritual health.

Now I realize that my goal of becoming in the image of Christ will not be achieved by doing whatever I want that does not directly conflict with His spirit, but will only be reached as I look ahead to that goal and do only those things which strengthen His spirit and do the most damage to my fleshes desires.  Thus I willing take the counsel of my parents and church leaders, since God has placed them there for my spiritual growth; and I choose only those things which strengthen my relationship with Christ and those I see setting a good example.

Why?  Because 1There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 2For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. Romans 8

Praise God!!

Stauffer Family 2006

2006-08-24T21:23:00.000-05:00

Time & God, Move Us On

2006-08-20T21:41:00.000-05:00

Well, after a LONG hiatus from this blog, and a reminder from Jon, I have resolved to confine myself to this room until I get a bit of an update done to this thing! Not that I have a great affection, or a responsibility to this thing, but I realize that others have come to count on these ramblings for an idea on what is going on in the crazy, far-off world of the Stauffer’s.

I was touched this morning by the sermon from the last few verses from Hebrews. My father, (the pastor) has been working through the book for the last ten months and it has been an encouraging, though somewhat baffling at times, study and has given much food for thought. This morning the part that really stuck out to me was the plea for the ability to live with a pure conscience. It was brought out about Paul who was able to say that he has always lived with a pure conscience. Paul!! The one who persecuted the church most mercilessly, and wrought great havoc among the early believers, was able to say that he did it because, he was deceived and thought that it was right. BUT, once he found out that it was wrong, did he make excuses? Did he justify it and try to reason it “his way.” No, he made an immediate about face and strove to work just as hard for the true church, as he had destroying what he thought was a false one.
The thought came to me that I have never fought and destroyed the church the same way that Paul had, but I still cannot say that I always have walked in a pure conscience. There have been times to my shame, that I have “walked over” the Spirit and hae done what I wanted to rather than what I knew God was calling me too. Oh the weight of grief that follows such actions and what I wouldn’t give to go back in my younger teen years and get rid of so many of those actions that I am still reaping fruit from to this day. I can say that when I have walked in the truth that I know, there has been unsurpassed peace and joy that nothing else can compare with!!

On another note, we are facing another change here this week. The place that I have been housing my business in is much too small for my needs and I was struggling to know what to do. I talked to my landlord and he said that for me to have more space, I was going to have to pay more per foot than I was now and I would have to foot all the remodeling expenses myself. Along the main road that the store is on, the going rate for lease space is $15 - $18 a square foot per year. Where I am now, I would have been having to pay almost $32 per square foot. Also, I had never signed a lease due to my landlords supposed right to come and go from my stores space whenever he chose, with, or without, my permission. I was nervous about that and talked to numerous other commercial landlords and found that he had no grounds for this and it raises a lot of sticky situations. So I decided to look for a new place.

To make a long story short, we are moving the store this Friday to another building about 100 yards away and I will almost double my floor space for ¾’s of what I was paying before! God is good and with the way that sales have been going, I may b able to pay off my business contract within the year.

We also have started Lakewood Christian Academy and have enrolled our first three children in it. We are home schooling for the main reason that there is no Christian school around and even in there was, with the wide diversity of “Christians” we feel that it would be better to give them their training here and exposing them to the culture only in steps that they are mature enough to handle.

Japheth Jr is in first grade though he already is reading some simple story books. He loves to have stories read to him and we look forward to his being able to enjoy them without us having to read it for the 75th time! :-)

Jeremiah is going to be starting to learn his phonics and maybe start on math.

Loraine is going to be three next March but she doesn’t want to miss out!! We are planning to teach her the alphabet and number 1 thru 20. (and go potty where all the big people do!)

Wayne, well… let’s get him talking and then go from there eh?

Head shapes

2006-07-11T07:55:00.000-05:00

Sunday morning, we were on the way to church and to pick up Aimee’s brother who cam to visit for a week.  Our boys had been ecstatic with anticipation of all the fun times with their Uncle Skyler.  However it had been almost two years since they would have seen him so I asked Japheth Jr. if he still knew what Skyler looked like.
     “Yes Papa, I know what he looks like!”
“What does he look like?” (I, who never misses a chance to learn better how to describe one’s looks :-)
“Oh Papa, he has a round head just like Jeremiah’s!”

Oh how the laughter rolled.

Japheth was only trying to find words to describe his uncle so he compared him to someone he knew.  The thought came to me later, what do people compare me to when they try to describe my physical features, or more importantly, my spiritual features!  Truly, “by their fruits ye shall know them.”

The Kissing Conundrum

2006-05-23T12:10:00.000-05:00

What to do? Being married has lot’s of problems. One of which is this, when you have a cold, do you still kiss your wife goodbye in the morning as you leave for work? If you don’t, you never know if you’ll get in a fatal accident and never have kissed her goodbye! On the other hand, if you kissed her, she might have a nasty cold for the funeral!!

Argh!! What to do!!!! Now I know why all single people smile all the time!

Spring's Here!!

2006-05-19T19:31:00.001-05:00

We are so thankful that the weather is warmer and that summer seems just around the corner! Here in Minnesota, when the daily temp gets up into the sixties, like is has for the last few days, we realize that the winter is finally over, even if we did have snow just a week and a half ago!

This evening I was too tired to cut firewood so I decided to cut the grass in our pasture in preperation
for church campout next weekend. My four oldest children all wanted a ride with Papa. Since I will not take more than one at a time while mowing, this was going to entail a lot of switching.

So instead I hooked the wagon onto the back of the mower, made sure that the discharge was not going to hit them, and gave them all a ride. They loved it and Amiee did too as it gave her the opportunity to get some sewing done.

I Love these days!!!

On a business note, here is a picture of the machine I made for the sharpening of rotary cutter blades. It involves two spin jigs, and a cross slide table from a machinist supply cataloge, a Delta variable speed bench grinder, two Cratex wheels, and the two blade holders I manufactured on my dads lathe. It takes me about 5 minutes to sharpen a blade with nicks in it and a little less for one without. I havn't had too much call for it yet and I have yet to see if I have beaten the Stauffer stigma of being able to design and build things, but never able to market them. We shall see.

We had a major answer to prayer lately! When Wayne was born the cost of a circumcision was almost $500. This time with Jaden, I called and asked what it would be and was told $175!!! I asked why and they told me that due to some change in the State run Health care system, I no longer had to pay for all the others who weren't paying! When we got the bill, it was for $153! Praise God!

Happy Mother's Day

2006-05-14T13:49:00.000-05:00

I wrote this about nine months after our first child was born.  It still is my heart and I want to bless all you mothers out there in the work you do!

A Tribute to My Mother

     In my life as I grew up, Mother was always something of a fixture and that is how I often saw her.  Just as you get light by turning on a light switch, so when you would get a skinned knee, Mother was there.  When I would wake up in the middle of the night with a bad dream, or get hurt feelings when someone at school said something that wounded me, Mother was always there.  It never occurred to me to wonder if she would have liked to be somewhere else, or if she would like to work at the job she used to.  I never questioned why she always had breakfast ready when I got up, or supper ready when Daddy came home from work, that was what mothers were supposed to do!  I felt that God must have given my mother to me instead of the other way around.  Now that I am a new father and am watching the making of a mother before my eyes, I have a greater understanding and a much greater appreciation for all that is wrapped up in the word mother.
     It had never occurred to me that it was a real chore to get up in the middle of the night with me and that the only reason was because you loved me.  I never realized the choice you made when you had us children instead of holding on to the world’s idea of a nice figure.  I never considered that maybe you would have liked to have a career outside of our home but you chose instead to do with a little less and in some cases to do without so that you could spend our childhood’s with us.  I never realized that headaches can hurt so badly and that you can’t just stop when you have one.  I never realized how scary it must have been to teach us children at home when you didn’t know some of the subjects that well.  I never realized that naps were just as much for mothers as for children, and often you needed more than we would allow.  I never realized that you don’t know everything and that you can’t be everywhere at once.  I never knew about late nights praying for your children and for your wandering son to come home.  I never realized the powerful example you set for us children, by your willingness to submit to your husband.   I didn’t know that you were setting the groundwork for us to submit to Daddy as well as to our heavenly Father.  I didn’t know about the weight of responsibility laid on you and Daddy, to teach us the ways of God.  You would always hug me so tight, and I didn’t know it was because you didn’t want me to grow up too fast, or that you knew all too soon, I would be gone.  Mother was always someone we came home too; I never thought what it must be like for her to see her brood grow up and go away.  I never thought about these things, they just were!  Now as I face the daunting task of father hood, there are times that I wish I could go back and be snuggled into Mommy’s lap, to hear her soft words of encouragement, and know that it will be OK.
     But now I am a Father, and am watching with new appreciation, the transformation of a young lady into a mother.  Not just a woman that bore a child but a mother, and all the bittersweet love that goes into the name.   And so I would like to thank the two mothers in my life; the one who bore me, and the one who bears my children, for all these things that you have done to take this cold and heartless world and turn it into a warm and loving home.  To me, heaven will be a greater version of the home Mother helped make for me.  Where Jesus is always there to comfort us, to wipe away our tears, and soothe our bleeding hearts.  He’ll hold us in His lap and let us listen to His beating heart.  Then, all the pain of life, the parts that even mothers can’t soothe away, will disappear as Jesus holds us close and echoes what all mothers have whispered, “It’s OK, your safe at home now, and I’ll always love you”!

Happy Mothers Day!

Basin and the Towel

2006-04-28T21:29:00.000-05:00

This morning as I was traveling to Fosston to drop off some machines, I was listening to some of my favorite songs and one of them was by Michael Card entitled, Basin and the Towel.  One phrase really stood out to me this time though, “one will kneel, and one will yield.  Our Savior servant must show them how, through the will of the water and the tenderness of the towel.”

It started me thinking.  A few months ago, my good friend Keith, told me, “Japheth, you are a really hard person to be a blessing too.  You almost never want to accept the gift or help from a brother.”  It made me wonder, why?  Why do I find it so hard to accept the kindness of others?  Why do I always have to be the giver and not the receiver?

This weekend we have communion again and since we still practice the Biblical ordinance of feet washing, I thought of the dialogue between our Lord and Peter.  Jesus didn’t rebuke Peter because he had been going too far in his service to the brotherhood.  No, Jesus didn’t even infer that.  Jesus simply stated that if Peter was unwilling to accept the gift of service to, Jesus said that he could have no part with him.  Then Peter went all out and wanted everything but Jesus balanced him out on that issue as well.

It just made me think that maybe I am the one in Peter’s shoes more than I thought.  I often have too much pride to “receive help from ‘that person,’” and thus I have missed a real blessing meant for me from God.  It also is a warning that once again, God cannot stand pride between His children and He even went so far as to state that if I am unwilling to humble myself in the brotherhood and accept the help that He has sent for me, my pride will keep me out of God’s kingdom.
Just some thoughts.

Otherwise, my life has been made up of too things, work and family!  When I am not at home eating or playing with the children, I am at the store working on sewing machines.  If you remember, I was so concerned when I started if I would have enough sewing machine repairs to pay for the place.  The words in Malachi ring in my ears, “see if I am able to open the windows of heaven and pour out such a blessing that there is not room enough to receive it.”  I have been SWAMPED with work!!  This past week I had sewing machines sitting on the floor because my shelves were too full to hold all of them!  I was hoping for 8-10 sewing machines a week, I have been getting 12-16!

It makes a man feel pretty small to feel the trust that God places in you who has failed Him so many times!  I am grateful and humbled that so many people trust me and have given of their hard earned dough to have me work on their machines!  Truly, God does not give us what we deserve; He instead has blessed us beyond belief!!

He's HERE!!!

2006-04-05T05:06:00.000-05:00

We praise the Lord that He saw fit to bless us with another son. After weeks of unrest in the fact of not knowing when we were due and several false starts of labor, today was a God-send!

Jaden Scott Stauffer
was born at 3:17 am on April 5th, 2006.
He weighed in at 9 lbs even, and was 20 3/8" long.

The labor was hard to get started but once Aimee's water broke at 2:05 am, things kicked in high gear and Jaden was born 72 minutes later. Both Aimee and Jaden are doing very well. Aimee had no complications and is recovering quickly. Truly God answered our prayers for safety and as quick a birth as possible.

Thank YOU for all the prayers you have offered up for us the last week or so. We have felt them and feel very blessed by all the friends we have out there.

Now it is 5:21 and I have not slept yet so since Aimee and the little one are sleeping, I shall try to get a few winks in before I have to get up with the rest of the children.

Another Week, No Baby

2006-04-03T07:49:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I had my friend Jason, came up to me and said;

“Japheth, I never heard if your new little one is a little boy or a little girl?” (he had not seen us for two weeks since the previous week we had been home from church thinking we were going to have the baby.)

(Me) “Well, it would have to be one or the other I supposed, eh?”

“Yes Japheth, that is how it works! So… (about this time my wife, who he has not seen yet this morning, walks past us, still looking like she has imbibed too much on the watermelon patch. He looks down and sees her) OH….”

The poor fellow! He got red and started stammering around and if I hadn’t felt sorry for him, it would have been quite hilarious!

The new store is up and running and I have been busier than I thought possible! I have been getting at least 5-6 customers a day with some days as many as 15! Thanks to a dear brother who gave us the needed money to mail flyers to 930 sewers in the area, I have been getting quite a few machines in for servicing. I have been so blessed by the Lord and my close friends that I feel that this store is hardly mine, but God’s since he is the one who prompted all these hearts and so bountifully provided everything that was needed.

This picture is of the out side of the building where I have two offices inside. I currently lease about 180 square feet and am using every square inch of it!! However, the main business, Search Resources, may not be staying there much longer and then I would have first dibs on their space (almost 500 square feet) and the bigger sign you see out front. For the time though, I am very content with the space I have and am grateful to the Lord for His leading in getting me there. (see previous post for that saga)

No baby yet though we rechecked all our dates and figures and the EDD could be as late as April 6. So we still wait!!

Proverbs 13:12

2006-03-27T06:59:00.000-06:00

Prov. 13:12 Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.

Sometimes we wonder at the hand of God.  Yesterday morning we woke up with Aimee having strong contractions close together and various other signs that this was the time.  Yet, after a few hours, they started to slow down.  We consulted with our midwife and after prayer, decided to try and help things along.  Aimee’s due date is the 27th as close as we can figure, but do to a faulty pregnancy test, it could be anytime in the last two weeks.

Thus the midwife and I were starting to get concerned that this baby was too slow in coming and thus would be huge, may be too large for Aimee to handle.  Yet by late afternoon, the contractions had stopped completely.  Her water had not broken, but that is nothing unusual.  We spent some time again in prayer and decided to just stop all things that we were doing to help the contractions along and let nature (God) move things along.

Aimee had several more contractions thru the evening and then we went to bed and she had a wonderful night of sleep, one of the best in weeks, as her bones hardly ached at all.  So this morning I am emptying out the pool and wondering why God chose to not have our baby born yesterday.

Late yesterday evening, we got the call that a friend of ours up here in MN, who was also expecting a baby the same time, had gone into the hospital for an emergency C-section.  We prayed for them and then I realized that we could have been doing that.  God may have foreseen a problem yesterday and knew that a few more days would take care of the problem and chose to make us wait.

Thus the words in Proverbs this morning.  We are a little saddened to not have our little one in our arms yet and for the fact that Aimee will have to carry this added weight around for a few more days.  Yet we rejoice in the Lord that He is in control and when this desire comes, it will be full of life!

Thank you for all your prayers!!!!  I am sorry for the false alarm but we would still appreciate your prayers for the child and for Aimee over the next few days.  May God’s will be done.

D Day!

2006-03-26T14:52:00.000-06:00

We woke up this morning to the realization that today is likely going to be the day of delivery. However, we would sure appreciate your prayers as it is going very slow and
Aimee's feeling discouraged.

Please pray with us that God would draw this young life forth both safely and quickly! Thank you!!

A Store to Call God's Own

2006-03-17T22:10:00.000-06:00

A lot has happened in our lives the past few weeks. My inattentiveness to this blog is the by-product of a very hurried and harried life and it looks like it won’t change for a while.

As you may have read back a ways, I was struggling to make ends meet with just the income from my own sewing machine repair shop in our basement. This was due in a large part to the large fee I had to pay to my former employer for them allowing people to drop-off and pick up machines in their store. Just before I took my son to Thailand for his eye surgery, I had started a part time job with another sewing store in town. When I returned from the three weeks, my new boss told me that she was selling the store. She also stated that the new owner did not want to handle the Janome Sewing Machines and was going to have just a fabric and patterns, quilt store. Did I want to buy the dealership with all stock?

This was a huge question for me. I had wanted to do something like this in the future say, three or four years, but is now the time? We explored several options which included me just managing the line for someone else, and the possibility of opening a store in Bemidji.

What has happened in the last two weeks is something I never want to forget. After much talk with my father, and hearing his caution over this opportune time to allow pride to rear it’s ugly head in a fresh way, he encouraged me to slowly pursue this opportunity. The big difference with this was that the owner was willing to do contract for deed, and was not making me make a lump sum payment. That Saturday, Aimee and I went into town to look at properties and found one that would work however the rent was right at the MAX of what we could afford. We felt led to pray about it and take the weekend to think about it. That afternoon, as we were sitting in the living room, I was ticking off all the things we would need to have to open the store, ie; vacuum, credit card terminal, cash drawer, lumber for workbench, ect. Aimee suggested that we pray to ask God for His hand in providing these things for us. Now I am so much a hands on guy that to simply sit back and wait for God to provide something that Discover Card could right now, difficult for me. But I knew how easy it was for me barge ahead of God and run smack into a closed door, so I agreed and remember thinking that this was a time to stand back and allow the Lord to open the doors first before pounding on them.

As we were praying, I felt the prompting to talk to my neighbor who has a construction company, to see if he had any scraps of lumber around that I could use for building my bench. After we finished, I went over and talked to him and he very willingly gave me enough to build my bench!

Now in all my years in the vacuum store, no one has ever given me a vacuum. (except my boss for a wedding present) The next afternoon a young lady from our church calls up and wondered if I want a Dirt Devil vacuum. It was given them by a lady they clean for and they had no use for it and thought of me. Hallelujah!!!

On Monday I went into the store to work and my boss asked me if I wanted to purchase their till, and or credit card terminal. She would even be willing to add the amount on to the Contract for deed price!! WOW!!

Now, what about a place? Over the weekend, Aimee and I felt that maybe we should look around a bit more to make sure that this was the right place for us. So that morning I had found a space that was coming up for vacancy and might fit our needs and budget. The owner said that he needed to think about it and would get back to us the end of the week. We waited all week and on Friday he called to say that no, he couldn’t fit it into our budget. So what do we do. We climbed back into the van and headed for town. Now Aimee was hoping for something that had a reddish carpet in it but was not demanding it. She also had not seen the inside of the first place we had inquired about. After we had expanded all other possibilities, we went back to our very first option. It had reddish carpet, two rooms so that Aimee could spend some time with me, and enough space for years to come. Only two hang ups. One was the $900 rent a month, and two, we would have to sign a three year lease.

After praying about it, we felt that God wanted us to tell the owner we would take it. He was glad and said that he would try to get the lease papers drawn up over the weekend and we could sign Monday. Well Monday rolled around and I showed up at his place of business about the time they opened and he stated that he had not had time to draw up the lease and that his wife would try to get it done before noon. At 11:30 he called to say that it was ready. I was meeting Keith at the store for lunch to show him around and figured I would sign the lease on the way down. However, God had me get busy and when I next looked at my watch, it was noon. I had to rush right down to the shop to meet Keith in time and since the carpet cleaners were coming, the doors were unlocked and we strolled around and talked for awhile. When we left I almost turned right to go sign the lease but I figured I could do that on the way back from downtown where I had to drop some sewing machines off at my old employers place. (almost 80% of my sewing machine repairs were coming from them, a major source of funds in my business plan!) When I talked to my former boss, I asked her if she was willing to refer people to me for a small dollar amount per customer. She stated that she was not sure, she just might start up her own repair shop again and hire a sewing machine technician to do all the machines!

I felt blown out of the water. She had stated over the previous months that she was tired of the sewing machines and was probably going to get rid of them completely, now this! I went back to the landlord and explained that almost half the income that I was expecting to take in was all of a sudden up for grabs. He understood and said that I could think on it for a few more days. I had come SO CLOSE to signing a contract that I would likely not have been able to keep!

I struggled with attitudes that afternoon. But thru it all, I felt that “God, you have led so distinctly over the last few months and strengthened my faith as I saw you move the ‘un-movables,’ I can’t wait to see what your going to do here.” I was facing the pressure of a deadline for changing my $500 ad in the yellow pages for the next year, the store that sold the sewing machines was changing hands within 7 days, yet I felt such a peace that God was in control. Oh the peace that that knowledge brings in the midst of the storm! I went home and slept soundly that night!

(Wow this is getting loooong!)

Tuesday afternoon, I saw an ad for some office space in a good part of town. I called them and it sounded promising and Daddy and I jumped in the van to go take a look. It would have worked for us but the landlord was not so sure. He did refer us to a friend that had some space and might fit our needs. We drove down to it and thought it had a lot of promise. It had plenty of parking, right on the main road with over 11,000 cars going past each day, with a sign out front, and two entrances. The owner lived 45 miles away and was not coming in till Thursday, would we like to see it then? We readily agreed and yesterday I met with him. It has two tenants in it now and thus the options were either two small rooms upstairs, or one big room in the basement. I was not keen on having all the ladies carrying their machines down the stairs, so I asked what he wanted for rent for the two small rooms. (less than 200 square feet :-) The price he said was less than half what we would have been paying at the other place!! We would only need to sign a one year lease, and we can move in this weekend. I said we would take it. It is tiny, yet there will be room to grow since the other tenants are only there month-by-month and may move out at any time and with the lower rent, we will be able to pay of the former owner much faster than before.

On Tuesday, the owner of the store I was buying, said that I could use her mailing list of all the sewers in the area and send them a notice of were I was at. Her list was over 800 long. I had been keeping a data base of my own customers so I had about 200 more. I made up a flyer and photocopied 1000 pages, bought envelopes and stamps, and this past afternoon and evening, my family help stuff, stamp, and label over 900 envelopes.

I am just awestruck at God’s leading and it is going to be fun to watch what He does in the future. Please pray for me though. I find that it is so easy to push God aside when we become to busy and I DON”T want to do that. Especially after we have become so close again through this time of testing.

Add to all this, the baby can come at any day! (just not Monday, please?) :-)

The Life Within the Rose

2006-02-22T06:10:00.000-06:00

I have no words of wisdom,
or thoughts of great repose.
Just some simple, humble, earthly thoughts,
of the life within a rose.

How great the beauty of the rose
as it blooms within this sphere.
Yet its petals drop so quickly,
in it’s short-lived life down here.

Roses take so much work,
to keep them healthy every day.
We’re always pruning, tilling dusting,
to try and keep their diseases at bay.

Yet we would think it odd,
to give all our thoughts to petals
And forget its roots beneath the sod.
Or would we?

Yet her life’s not held within,
the lovely blossoms of bright red,
but lies deep within the earth,
the root’s by which she’s fed.

Our lives are but a vapor here,
like the petals of the rose.
We bloom so quickly, and are gone,
while the heart within still grows.

So when our loved one passes
from this life to their rest,
they’ve only ceased to live with us,
but still blossom at their best.

For the Master Gardener plans
his flower beds with care,
and moves His flowers from time to time,
to fit His plan up there.

For the lovely rose’s petals
are decomposing in the sod,
yet her heart, her life within her,
is transplanted home with God.

-Japheth Stauffer
God gave me these verses the day of Krystal’s funeral.

Enough to Make a Daddy Cry

2006-02-18T07:13:00.000-06:00

This is one of those before and after shots. Can you see why my heart was stirred when they took the bandages off the first time? We took the large picture this morning as that is when he most readily pulls the eyes together. This should continue to get better each day.

Return of the Travelers

2006-02-17T23:39:00.000-06:00

Greetings from a tired, globe-trotting father! It is now 11:00 at night and thanks to jet lag, I am wide awake! Oh well, I have acquired a precious 6 hours of sleep over the last 52 hours so if this seems a little dis-jointed, you’ll know why! :-) We arrived home here at 1:30am this morning.

I want to thank all of you for your prayers! I felt so buoyed up these last two and a half weeks that I could hardly believe it! We praise God that the surgery was a success and we were very grateful we went. The doctors and staff were beyond my expectations and we were very blessed with their knowledge, skill and tender loving care! As far as the surgery, it took about a little over an hour from the time they put him under till I could go to the recovery room to see him wake up. I was so thankful that I was allowed into the operating room and hold my son as he “fell asleep.” I was the last face he saw and the first when he awoke and that meant a lot to me. I tell you, it goes thru the heart of a father to watch your frightened son go from crying to his eyes rolling back and as limp as a dish rag in the space of ten seconds. I went out into the waiting room and wept while asking all the questions that a father asks at those times. “Why did we do this? Couldn’t we have done it another way? Do they know what they are doing and did they give him to much anesthesia?” I know these questions are irrational but when you are on the other side of the world from your wife and family, it’s different. I had my Bible with me and spent the time reading portions of scripture about the eye and then turned to Isaiah 40. God really touched my heart again as I read the promise He made to his children Israel, to shepherd their hearts and gently carry those with young. Oh that lifted up my spirit as I realized that I was “with young.” Not in a reproductive way of course, but I was alone with a young child that I was responsible for and God was saying that He would gently carry me! Oh how I rejoiced!

When they called me into the recovery room, Wayne was just beginning to wake up and was still very groggy and VERY hungry since this growing boy had had nothing to eat or drink since almost 8 hours earlier! After he was able to swallow water fine, they let me give him a bottle of milk and then he was a little better able to cope with the fact that his one eye was sore and he could not open it or rub it. We were able to then go back to our room though he had to keep the IV in for a few hours more. Speaking of our room! We were able to pick what kind of room we wanted. When was the last time that you got to do that in a hospital?! We got the second best kind of room which had a balcony, sofa sleeper, soft, padded chairs, table, and private bath with a shower, refrigerator, wardrobe, and all the patients’ meals, for the royal price of about $70 a day! We didn’t get to much sleep that night though because the nursing staff had not every had a white baby in before and couldn’t get over seeing a baby with such long eye lashes, blond hair, and such a ready smile. They had to keep peeking in to see if he was awake yet and since the surgery had gone so well and Wayne was so happy, I didn’t care a bit!

The next morning they came and changed the bandages and Wayne’s was clean and his eyes briefly looked straight at me…I almost wept for joy! The surgeon moved the muscle back as far as is possible and it brought Wayne’s eye into a close enough alignment that his brain should now be able to see the two images and pull them together. Wayne still does not always focus on you due to the fact that he still has stitches in there and it makes it slightly uncomfortable to move the eye very far. They sutures will disappear within three weeks and after that is when we should see the greatest improvement. The doctor told us that it may take up to six months for his brain to learn to pull that eye consistently into alignment and “fuse” them together like yours and mine. If it doesn’t do it by then, we may have to tweak the other eye a little to get them to line up. We will be seeing the local doctor here to see what he thinks and to keep up to date with his progress.

While in Thailand, we visited several different places, the highlight being our weekend trip to Chiang Mai to see Deaniel Yoder and the rest of the staff at GTO. The weather was quite warm over there with the daily high being in the 90’s and getting down to 75 at night. Thank God for A/C!!!! Now, last night when we arrived home, it was 120 degrees colder that what we had left in Bangkok, -26! Yowsers, was it COLD!!!

I now have my work cut out for me as I have 30 sewing machines waiting for me and jet lag to conquer! It is great to be working at home this time since if I wake up at 3:00 in the morning again, I can get up and head to the basement to work on the machines.

I will probably post more tidbits in the days to come but for now this will have to do since I am starting to get slightly sleepy and that is a good feeling. Thanks again for all your support for me and my wife during this time!

God Speeds up Life

2006-01-29T07:38:00.000-06:00

Ok, it’s my fault I haven’t posted in a while, but let me fill you in. We had about 600 people at the funeral and ended up feeding about 500 of them. It was a moving service with her brother Dawson leading the singing and her other brother, Nolan, giving a short synopsis of her life. A good friend of our church, Keith Yates or affectionately known as “Bear,” shared two songs. Bear is blind and was rejected by his family as a baby and grew up in a bunch of homes. It was so neat, to see the joy on his face when he came to the last verse of looking forward to heaven, even after he struggled so much with his emotions the first few verses. My father brought a message on the fact the “Precious in the eyes of the Lord are the death of His saints!”
Click in the picture for a larger view.
Afterwards, the pall bearers loaded the casket into the back of our van for the trip out to the cemetery. It was a drive of almost 30 miles since we had to use the largest church in the area. We had contacted the police and they blocked traffic for the processional and the line was about a mile and a half long when we were all close together. I already shared about what our grave side services are like and won’t bored you with that again, but one thing that thrilled my heart, was to sing as a group, “Lift Your Glad Voices!” To see Val with his hand raised to heaven and singing with all his might was so overwhelming.

After Krystal’s passing, we had a week of recovery and rest. Then things kicked into high gear again. I had come to the realization that I needed a little more income to continue to meet our needs and plan for the future, so I started looking for a part time job. The Lord opened one up at a local quilt shop where I can work there two days a week and do the same things I have done for the last 8 years, talk to people and sell sewing machines.

Then to speed it up some more, we got our taxes done and thanked God that there was $2000 there to get our youngest sons eye fixed. For the last two months I have been looking into options for the surgery to move the muscle back on our sons eye. Here in Bemidji, they want $6000 to do the simple, out-patient surgery. I knew we would not have that much money so what do we do? First we prayed that God would give us wisdom to know what to do, and had an anointing. We contacted various hospitals around the area and found the price all about the same, so we tried Canada. They wouldn’t even touch him because we Americans can now sue Canadian doctors for malpractice and thus it is too expensive for them to have the insurance. I stated that we would be willing to sign a paper stating that we would not hold them liable, but he stated that it is our son they worry about. He, (the doctor) would have to carry American malpractice insurance until our ten-month-old son, turned 21. He asked why we didn’t do it in our area and when I told him the cost, he was shocked, “Why so much!!!!”

So we looked elsewhere. A few years ago we had been in Thailand and knew friends there and started looking into going there. There are a bunch of hospitals all set up to work with English speaking people who come there for the same reason, cheaper medical care. These hospitals are equipped just as good as and sometimes even better than our own, and the doctors are often trained here in America. The cost, $1000 - $1800. Add a $900 round trip plane ticket and you are looking at still saving over half the price. And so, after much prayer and talking with the hospital staff and a friend who also had eye surgery done there, we decided to go have it done in Thailand.

That brings me to today, the tickets are bought, plans are made, and Wayne and I leave tomorrow with another couple in our church for the trip over. We will be gone a little over two weeks and would appreciate you prayers for both me and Aimee as she takes care of the other children here at home.

I will be taking lots of pictures and might share some when I get back.

Tomorrow

2006-01-13T19:15:00.000-06:00

This evening as we had the viewing for Krystal, Val told me that he almost feels bad cause here we are weeping our eyes out and he is just so drained from all the crying he’s done that he has no tears left.  I assured him that we understood and felt no hard feelings whatsoever.

In some ways it is so tough to have two funerals.  Yet this one is sure to be the harder of the two because of tomorrow.  Here at Kitchi, the graveside service is different than any other service I was ever at before moving here.  First of all, we dig the grave by hand.  Then when the casket is lowered into its wooden vault, the lid is screwed or nailed down and then they fill the grave back in by hand.  A few years ago when Krystal’s daughter Kayla was buried there, each of the children and Val helped to fill in the grave.  They were not told to do this, it was simply done by them.

I watched as the family struggled with their emotions and wondered if this wasn’t a little to rough.  Yet I wonder, does not the final reality of the grave close the door on the past and bring to an end the time that our loved one was with us?

I wrote in the previous post about my hearts desire to cling to the past, to want Krystal to still be with us, to refuse to accept that fact that only her body remains, her spirit is home with God.  Yet by physically placing her in the earth’s bosom, with each shovel full of dirt, we loose the hold on the past and look forward to the reunion of the future.  Does it remove the pain?  By all means NO!  Yet it does a more subtle work of helping our hearts to accept what our eyes and spirits know, she is dead here but the future reunion is to be looked for and anticipated.

Quote of the Day;
     “Krystal loved symbolism.  She was going to a wedding for someone else.  She didn’t know she would be going to her own wedding to her Lord.”
-Dale Ropp, Deacon at Kitchi Pines, MN

The Earthly Grave

2006-01-10T18:12:00.000-06:00

Today was a little different for me, I did something that I had never done before, I helped dig a grave by hand.  A lot of thoughts go through your mind when you do work like that.  And no, I am not superstitious and feel all creepy and crawly, but it really makes you think.

This wooden casket holds a body and someday will be indistinguishable from the ground around it which we are digging out now.  The wood will rot and man will return to the form that he had at the beginning of time, dirt.

I asked myself why?  Why didn’t God make us to disappear completely, body and all when we die?  Why the cruel and harsh reality of how disposable we are?  And the only thing I can come up with is this.  God uses death to remind us that this life is only for here.  We came into this world with nothing and we most assuredly will take nothing with us when we leave.  Life here is final.  There is no changing anything once our body has given up it’s breath.  Yet, what we have done to touch the lives around us is the only thing that will last.  These are the only things we “take with us.”

Everything we see will one day disappear. Everything we can’t see, will last forever!

Krystal walked with God in such a real way that we want to hold onto something of her.  It seems too…finale or something to put her in the cold ground.  Yet when you know her and watched her life and struggles, the best thing of her that I can hold onto is not tangible, but eternal.  It is her unquenchable love for her precious Savior.  If I can latch onto that, then I have a “piece” of Krystal.

Please pray for us here at Kitchi Pines.  I for one, find myself steeling my emotions against any sign of sorrow lest I loose it and fail in all the responsibilities that lay on us for this weekend’s funeral.  I know that I shouldn’t do it but it is the best way for me to cope right now.

But more than that, pray for Val’s family as they have far more questions and grief than I do.  I just hope that we can bear as much of the load as possible so that their weekend can be as free of decisions and responsibilities as possible.

Service Schedule

2006-01-08T21:04:00.000-06:00

The service in east is going to be held at
Gateway Minitries
11017 Kemps Mill Rd,
Williamsport, MD 21795
at 10:30 Wednesday, January 11

Here is a mapMap of 11017 Kemps Mill Rd
Williamsport, MD 21795-3129, US

For the service here in Minnesota, there will be a viewing Friday evening from 4-6 and from 7-9. We are not absolutly sure where yet but we will know tommorrow.

The funeral service will be held at 10:00 am on Saturday, January 14, at the Evengilical Covenant Church in Bemidji. The doors will open 1 hour prior to the service for early arrivals. There will be a meal following in the church's fellowship hall. There is a lot of food being brought but if you want to bring a dish for the meal, or for the family in the days to follow, that is fine.
The church is located just west of Bemidji on Highway 2, past the Bemidji Airport and beside Dave Walters Mobile homes.

Services for Krystal

2006-01-08T13:11:00.000-06:00

We have some news as far as the dates for the services in memory of Krystal Yoder.
In Pennsylvania, they are planning a service for Wednesday, January 11. They do not know the time or place yet as people have been hard to get a hold of. I will post it here on my blog with directions, once we find it out.

Here in Minnesota, we will be having a service on Saturday, January 14 around 10 am.Internment will follow the service.
We also do not know the place but I will send it out once we know.

Please pray for the family and the host of people traveling for these services.

As of this morning, Krystal's mother and step-father, Ron & Fannie Mae, Krystal's brother, Dawson, and Val's mother Clara Mae, have started driving towards Pennsylvania with the casket and with the snow, I know they would appreciate your prayers.

Another Gem for God's Crown

2006-01-07T15:26:00.000-06:00

Today God Saw fit to take another of His gems home. We received word this afternoon that Krystal Yoder, wife of Val Yoder, was ushered into the presence of her beloved Savior.

She has had a long battle with her heart and today it gave out on her while attending a wedding in Lancaster Pennsylvania. Her brother who is a medical doctor was there with her and said that she could not have been revived even if she had been at the best hospital. It was her time to go.

Please pray for their family! Their oldest son is in Thailand doing prep work for the whole family to move there next year. This also happened at the same time that Val was attending a meeting to plan the development of a Bible school for Asians in Thailand. Pray for the family’s strength in all of this!!

Calling all Dull Quilters!

2005-12-30T12:50:00.000-06:00

Due to us trying desperately to save money for our sons eye surgery, I am stooping to advertising on my blog for work. Here's the scoop

Quilters love these very sharp rotary cutters and use them all the time. However the blades go dull, or get little nicks in them and need to be replaced. The standard size ones (45mm) cost about $6.50 or if you buy them in a ten-pack, about $5.00 apiece.

I have built a machine that I can sharpen these blades now. Even take out the small nicks! It is not one of these little blue plastic sandpaper jobs, it involves a bench grinder, two machinist spin jigs, two clamps that I turn out myself on my dad's lathe, and special wheels for the grinder. I have been working with the local quilt shop to perfect the technique and am ready for all takers.

I charge $2.50 per blade for the 45mm blade and $3.00 per blade for the 60mm blades.
Since these blades are so thin and easy to mail, people can mail them to me and combine shipping with their friends. If they send me 10 or more at one time, I will pay the shipping back. If they send 20 or more, I will reduce the price by $.50 per blade. I do reserve the right to say that a blade is not able to be sharpened because the nick is too large. If that happens, you will not be charged for that blade, and it will be disposed of here.

All blades must be sent in a case of some sort, preferably the original one. Some of the cases enable you to stick up to 10 blades in them and thus save on shipping.

If you would be so kind as to pass this on to your sewing friends, I would greatly appreciate it. Also if you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to let me know as well. Here's my address;

A Stitch In Time
28957 Birchmont Beach Rd. NE
Pennington, MN 56663

Or if you wan to call me, CLICK HERE and an email will open up with my phone number in the subject line. Thanks and have a great Day!

My Christmas Blessing

2005-12-24T14:22:00.000-06:00

In this day of self-indulgence, may we remember the magnitude of the gift given us, and respond with equal generosity back to Him who we love. It is our greatest gift, it is our greatest debt! Thank you Jesus!

Quote of the day:
His diaper is fine but his head needs changing!
-my brother, who is going to become a father this spring, commenting on my youngest sons peculiar odour and found it was not his diaper, but his sweaty head.

The Murderous Blanket

2005-12-21T17:54:00.000-06:00

I have a creep in bed with me!! Before you think I am calling my wife names, I will explain.

When we got married, some well-meaning individual, knowing that we would have snow for at least six months out of the year, got us a king size, vellux blanket. This thing is the creepiest thing I have ever seen! It has hundreds of thousands of little feet that never stay still but spend the whole night walking across the bed. I am convinced that if we died and have lain perfectly still all night, the blanket would still be on the floor at one side by morning!!

It gets worse! When you flip the blanket over, it, like a lot of ladies I know and love dearly, changes it’s mind! It then decides that it likes the other side of the bed and proceeds to carry all the blankets above it off the other side of the bed till morning! Finally I thought I had figured it out. I would turn it so that it would walk towards the head of the bed so that all the covers would stay tucked up around our chins. Now wasn’t that using my noggin? The crazy thing tried to suffocate us by piling up around our heads! Seriously, it was all scrunched up the way women do with their socks around their ankles.

So I have taken to sleeping with one eye open lest the little creep gets any more malicious ideas in its little head, err... feet,… or wherever it gets it devious nature.

Funny thing, my wife hasn’t complained?! Maybe it has to do with the fact that right now the little feet are walking her way and so she never wakes up at three in the morning to a 60 degree room and just a thin sheet for comfort. Hmmm… I shall have to keep an eye on her too.

Of Departures and Arrivals

2005-12-18T08:53:00.000-06:00

Yesterday we got up early to see our Malaysian students off to their homes for a visit.  The one group left at 7:00 in the morning, and the other group didn’t leave until 10:45.  We hadn’t told any of them that we would be there and they even told us that they didn’t expect us to be there since it was so far to drive in their opinions.  We were able to see them surprise them and express our love for them as they left.

There where several things that stood out to me through the morning.  The one girl was leaving and would not see the others again, maybe ever.  She was very tearful and it tore my heart to realize that she has no hope of seeing them someday in heaven as we would with our loved ones.  Another girl, who has been more quiet and withdrawn, was doing her best to keep back the tears as she eagerly kept pressing her hand against the glass that separated the passengers from the visitors.  You could see the questions going through her mind.  Will I see them again?  What will home be like now that I have been gone for a year?  Will I get to come back and finish my degree?  I had to choke back a few tears myself as I longed to see them fulfilled in Christ as I have been.  I longed to extend the balm to their aching hearts but they had chosen, at least for now, not to accept it.

The other thing was this.  Up at the little airport there is no motorized causeway to cozy up to the plane and deliver the passengers through its heated hallways to the terminal.  Instead the passengers must walk down the steps to the ice and snow covered concrete, and through the 0 degree air to reach the open door of the building.  Inside, where we were sitting, there was a crowd of people, waiting for their Christmas company.  It was fun to watch the faces of the people as they strained to catch a glimpse of their loved one.  They kept watching, did he make his connection in Minneapolis? Would he have changed much?  Oh, it’ll be so good to see him again!!  They’d bend their heads to the left and right, straining to see past the passengers who were getting off first.  Finaly, YES!!  There he was!!  I watched as 70 year olds turned into 8 year olds as they kind of hugged themselves and pushed past people to be as near the gate as possible.  It was a joyous reunion as they met, he glad to be home safe and sound, they, to have him back in their companionship for the next number of days.

  I thought about what it will be like in heaven.  What a welcome home party that will be!!  And right now there is the anticipation, the longing, to be with the one who loves us more than anyone else.  To see Him face to face for the first time even though His presence has been in our hearts for some time, that is the desire of our hearts.  Every time God takes one of His loved ones home, there is a welcoming crowd and there is Jesus, eagerly watching for that first glimpse.

But there might be others watching, wondering, did he make it?  Did he turn his life over to Christ before it was too late?  Where they victorious over their besetting sin and finally break through?  Or where they able to hang onto the young faith they were left with?  I am reminded of a song called I Dreamed I Searched Heaven for You, where it tells of a person searching for the one they loved amongst the throngs of heaven, only to find him not there.

Our finally journey will end either joyously or grievously, the choice is being made now, by you, and by me.  What will the homecoming be?

Do I hear you Smiling?

2005-12-12T21:45:00.000-06:00

Our son just warmed our hearts again this evening with his smiles and laughing at the smallest things. I am so thankful that they don't remember all our mistakes as parents!!! Read the post below if you wonder what I mean :-)

I'm jello, He's the Rock

2005-12-10T22:44:00.000-06:00

Well I know I should write but what?  I could write about the 2x4 that God used to get thru to me about how much of Japheth was still in control of Japheth.  Or I could tell about how finally I obeyed that weird prompting in my spirit and went to see a guy for no real reason, only to find that he was at the end of the rope, so to speak, and even that was beginning to fray.  Or I could tell how that God protected my son during his roller coaster ride down our basement stairs.  He rolled more than he coasted and praise God, except for a few bruises and an hour of heart wrenching sobs; he’s none worse for wear.

In all of this the thing that gets to me more than anything is that in spite of ourselves, God is still in control.  We can blow it big time, like I did when I forgot the gate at the top of the stairs for only a few seconds, and God is still in control.  Sure, bad things can happen, but Gods hand is in them just as much as when everything runs smooth!  He never lets go unless we tell Him to.  He is still using the things of this life to bring us closer to Him.  He never wastes pain or grief, but instead uses them like disinfectant in a wound.  They hurt worse than a bloody nose to a six year old but we know that with it comes the knowledge that it is cleansing our hearts of the things that shouldn’t be there.

That’s what I shared with my friend who felt that life had no purpose or reason for living any more.  That we may feel like life is a whirlwind around us and see no light at the end of the tunnel, but God wants us to stare into the darkness and say “God no matter what, I know you are in control and tho I cannot see you and do not understand what you are doing in my life, I choose to trust you.”  …though He slay me, yet will I trust Him!

On the other side, Jeremiah is POTTY TRAINED!!!!!!  And good news with even better is that Loraine is starting already and she’s not yet two years old.  I don’t know what it would be like to only have one in diapers! (at least for a couple months ;-)   We haven’t had that for over three years!!  Japheth Jr. is already reading sentences with three and four letter words.  Ya know, the more my family grows up, the less I know!!  I should have had my children when I was 20 or 21 and “knew” how it should be done!  Now I look at my family and realize my ineptness and lack wisdom to lead as I would like.

I just keep falling back on the one person that never changes, who always picks us up and rubs our bruises, and set us back on our feet for the next challenge.  Thank you Jesus!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2005-11-24T07:53:00.000-06:00

May your stuffing be tasty;
May your turkey be plump,
May your taters 'n gravy have nary a lump,
May your yams be delicious,
May your pies take the prize,
May your Thanksgiving dinner
Stay off of your thighs!

In All Points

2005-11-21T13:59:00.000-06:00

Something really stood out to me this past week of revivals and youth rally.  When we get thoughts into our minds that are diametrically opposed to Christ and His principles, we know they are from Satan.  Does that mean we have sinned and Satan has put these thoughts there?  No!  We cannot keep these thoughts from coming into our minds, but what we do with them while they are there, is another story!

     The Bible says that Jesus was “tempted in all points as we were, yet without sin.”  Look at the temptations in the wilderness.  Satan came and “talked” to Jesus in each of the temptations.  Yet He did not sin!  Jesus was still sinless because he chose not to dwell on that which He knew to be wrong, but instead responded from scripture and rebuked Satan and made him flee.

     Many times I have been fearful of my salvation because of reoccurring evil thoughts. (especially after confessing a spiritual failing)  But I now know that when these thoughts come, it is an opportunity to glorify Jesus by refuting the lie of the devil.  When we stand on the firm word of God, we glorify Him, and the devil will flee.  Those thoughts are the work of the devil and when we acknowledge who the author is and rebuke him, my salvation is strengthened and the devil’s is weakened!  Praise God!!

Thus, that which Satan sought to entrap me in has become the tool to strengthen my faith in my faithful and loving Lord!

Spoon Fed

2005-11-13T13:04:00.000-06:00

The past two weeks, Aimee and I have been trying to get our daughter to eat by herself. She knows how to do it and has done so quite often, but lately she has just decided that if it was something she was not all that cracked up about, she wouldn’t feed herself. She will let you spoon it in if you want, but she makes no effort to do it. What do you do? Let her go hungry till the next meal? Or maybe tape the spoon in her hand and let her sit in the high-chair till she has eaten a decent portion? How do you deal with it?

Today is the beginning of our meetings with Collier Berkshire.(sp?) We were asked this morning if we have time for revival? Do we make or take the time to spend earnestly in prayer for our own regeneration? I was struck with the analogy of my daughter. I have so often been doing my own thing that I don’t want to spend the time or take the effort to feed on God’s Word. I don’t mind at all, going to church and letting myself be “spoon feed” but to sit down and dig for myself, Uh Uh, I don’t do it! I am just like my daughter and I wonder, what is God feeling?

A Potbellied Stove

2005-11-12T13:13:00.000-06:00

Quote of the day!

“When your mom first got married, she had no problem staying warm at night because she had an “Armstrong Heater.” Now all she has is a potbellied stove!”
-for the sake of this mans safety, he shall go unnamed!

An Invention of Necessity

2005-11-03T23:21:00.000-06:00

The other night at the quilt club meeting I go to, I heard quite a few of the ladies bemoaning that fact that you cannot sharpen rotary cutter blades.  These blades can cost between $5-15 a piece and you might go thru several in a year’s time.  I looked online and found two sharpeners.  One that was mass marketed and all but worthless, and another that cost $895.  I made a simple decision, I can buy a lot of blades for that price!!

One thing I am so grateful for, is that my grandfather took the time to teach his boys to think outside the box.  To work with their hands and figure a way around problems.  Many businesses have brought problems to my father and grandfather, asking them to figure out how to fix them.  This is everything from a commercial machine to cut the corn off the ear, to a huge press at Caterpillar® that needed a moving table to transport parts away from the press after they were molded.  I have been blessed to grow up under their tutelage and God given wisdom.  Neither my father, nor my grandfather, are proud men.  They humbly go about their work, whether it is “big” or seemingly insignificant, they pursue it with the same attention to detail.

I reaped the benefit of that this evening.  Because they sought to teach me think, try things, even if they didn’t work, I succeeded in my project tonight.  I (We) built a machine to sharpen rotary cutter blades.  Were they there watching over my shoulder as I ran the lathe?  No.  But I felt the blessing of their guidance, and the legacy they gave me.

Thank you, Daddy and Grandpa!

These Days

2005-10-31T21:31:00.000-06:00

Well, it’s been two months now and the business seems to be taking off.  I have been kept busy enough that I sometimes don’t have time to get all the things done that I need too and that is kinda nice!  I have been averaging about 10 sewing machines a week and while that is the minimum that I feel I must maintain to keep all the bases covered, it is likely to increase as times go on.  Besides the sewing machine repair, I have been doing some computer repair, professional photography, and I just got two web sites to build!!

In all of this, I love being home with my family!!  What a blessed time it has been to fix machines on my bench while coaching my boys in taking an old one apart on the floor.  They loved it and I enjoyed the times watching them interact and asking for directions.  My oldest son has taken it upon himself that HE is Papa’s helper and chief media personnel.  When we go in a store, he runs ahead to find the owner and tell them we are there and what we will be doing this time!  This usually earns him a quick squeeze and a piece of hard, sugary stuff.  I can’t say it out loud any more but it’s spelled YDNAC backwards.  So far he hasn’t figured it out yet.

Speaking of him growing up, last week at church, I found him and a little neighbor girl playing downstairs while waiting for fellowship meal to start.  They were having a great time playing ‘Mama and Papa.’  When it came time to pray, Japheth sat down beside her and gently slid his arm around her for the whole prayer!  Ok, I had my eyes open some of the time but I am a parent so I can do that right?!  It was cute but I hope that he gets a good healthy fear of girls before he turns a teenager!!  I can’t having him turn into a little heartbreaker!

The New Look

2005-10-30T17:00:00.000-06:00

Well,

Do you Like it? I just tried myhand at this and it was quite the ordeal!! I still am working on a few bugs such as the double date beside the comments. Oh well, I guess it's life. I got the other main problem fixed with the font though so now it at least is readable. Have a great Sunday folks! If I look uglier this week it's because my "beauty rest" went into this while everyone else slept!

To My Love

2005-10-28T15:04:00.000-05:00

Congratulations!

To my wife who has today put up with this character for 5 years! Her patience knows no limits, and her love in unwavering in spite of her better instinct! Yea, her children rise up and call her blessed for they see their father and are so thankful that God sent her to their rescue lest they become like him! And while her beauty growth more and more, the light of it doeth reveal such spots of tarnish on her husband that he clings to her so that she cannot see them so much.

I love you sweetheart and I want the world to know that it’s you and only you that still have my heart. Thanks for the wonderful times we’ve had the last five years and as I have been married to you, we have both found out why God uses marriage as the analogy for the union with Christ. The times of joy that we have had, give us strength for the times of trial and if I can quote you,

“It’s worth the pain
It’s worth the Joy!”

Happy Anniversary Love!

Thankfull for Thorns

2005-10-24T11:01:00.000-05:00

This is the first time that I have posted something I have not written and trust me, it won’t become the norm! But this is a great story that has touched my heart in a very special way and I trust that in this time of thanksgiving and harvest, may we remember the thorns.

“THANK YOU, LORD, FOR THE THORNS.”

Sandra felt as low as the heels of her Birkenstocks as she pushed against a November gust and the florist shop door. Her life had been easy, like a spring breeze. Then in the fourth month of her second pregnancy, a minor automobile accident stole her ease. During this Thanksgiving week she would have delivered a son. She grieved over her loss. As it weren’t enough, her husband’s company threatened a transfer. Then her sister, whose holiday visit she coveted, called saying she could not come. What’s worse, Sandra’s friend infuriated her by suggesting her grief was a God-given path to maturity that would allow her to empathize with others who suffer. “Has she lost a child? No, she has no idea what I’m feeling,” Sandra shuddered.
Thanksgiving? “Thankful for what?” she wondered. For a careless driver whose truck was hardly scratched when he rear-ended her? For an airbag that saved her life, but it took that of her child?
“Good afternoon, can I help you?” The flower shop clerk’s approach startled her. “Sorry,” said Jenny, “I just didn’t want you to think I was ignoring you.”
“I . . . . . need an arrangement.”
“For Thanksgiving?”
Sandra nodded.
“Do you want beautiful, but ordinary, or would you like to challenge the day with a customer favorite I call the ‘Thanksgiving Special’?” Jenny saw Sandra’s curiosity and continued, “I’m convinced that flowers tell stories, that each arrangement conveys a particular feeling. Are you looking for something that conveys gratitude this Thanksgiving?”
“Not exactly!” Sandra blurted. “Sorry, but in the last five months everything that could go wrong has.”
Sandra regretted her outburst, but was surprised when Jenny said, “I have the perfect arrangement for you.”
The door’s small bell suddenly rang. “Barbara! Hi!” Jenny said. She politely excused herself from Sandra and walked toward a small workroom. She quickly reappeared carrying a massive arrangement of green bows and long-stemmed thorny roses. Only, the ends of the rose stems were neatly snipped – no flowers. “Want this in a box?” Jenny asked.
Sandra watched for Barbara’s response. Was this a joke? Who would want rose stems and no flowers! She waited for laughter, for someone to notice the absence of flowers atop the thorny stems, but neither woman did. “Yes, please. It’s exquisite!,” said Barbara. “You’d think after these three years of getting the Special, I’d not be so moved by its significance, but it’s happening again. My family will love this one. Thanks.”
Sandra stared. “Why so normal a conversation about so strange an arrangement?” She wondered. “Uh,” said Sandra, pointing. “That lady just left with . .uh . . .:
“Yes?”
“Well, she had no flowers!”
“Off? Yep. That’s the Special. I call it the ‘Thanksgiving Thorns Bouquet’.”
“But, why do people pay for that?” In spite of herself, she chuckled.
“Do you really want to know?”
“I couldn’t leave this shop without knowing. I’d think about nothing else!”
“That might be good,” said Jenny. “Well,” she continued, “Barbara came into the shop three years ago feeling very much like you feel today. She thought she had very little to be thankful for. She had lost her father to cancer, the family business was failing, her son was into drugs and she faced major surgery.”
“Ouch!” said Sandra.
“That same year I lost my husband. I assumed complete responsibility for the shop and for the first time, spent the holidays alone. I had no children, no husband, no family nearby and too great a debt to allow any travel.”
“What did you do?”
“I learned to be thankful for thorns.”
Sandra’s eyebrows lifted. “Thorns?”
“I’m a Christian, Sandra. I’ve always thanked God for good things in my life and I never thought to ask Him why good things happen to me. But when bad stuff hit, did I ever ask! It took time to learn that dark times are important. I always enjoyed the flowers of life, but it took the thorns to show me the beauty of God’s comfort. You know, the Bible says that God comforts us when we are afflicted and from His consolation we learn to comfort others.”
Sandra gasped. “A friend read that passage to me and I was furious! I guess the truth is, I don’t want comfort. I’ve lost a baby and I’m angry with God.” She started to ask Jenny to “go on” when the door’s bell diverted their attention.
“Hey, Phil!” Shouted Jenny as a balding, rotund man entered the shop. She softly touched Sandra’s arm and moved to welcome him. He tucked her under his side for a warm hug. “I’m here for the twelve thorny long-stemmed stems!” Phil laughed heartily.
“I figured as much,” said Jenny. “I’ve got them ready.” She lifted a tissue-wrapped arrangement from the refrigerated cabinet.
“Beautiful,” said Phil. “My wife will love them.”
Sandra could not resist asking, “These are for your wife?”
Phil saw that Sandra’s curiosity matched his when he first heard of a Thorn Bouquet. “Do you mind me asking, ‘Why thorns’?”
“No, in fact, I’m glad you asked,” he said. “Four years ago my wife and I nearly divorced. After forty years we were in a real mess, but we slugged through, problem by rotten problem. We rescued our marriage – our love really. Last year at Thanksgiving I stopped in here for flowers. I must have mentioned surviving a tough process because Jenny told me that for a long time she kept a vase of rose stems – STEMS – as a reminder of what she learned from ‘thorny’ times. That was good enough for me. I took home stems. My wife and I decided to label each one for a specific thorny situation and give thanks for what the problem taught us. I’m pretty sure this stem review is becoming a tradition.”
Phil paid Jenny, thanked her again and as he left, said to Sandra, “I highly recommend the Special!”
“I don’t know if I can be thankful for thorns in my life,” Sandra said to Jenny.
“Well, my experience says that thorns make roses more precious. We treasure God’s providential care more during trouble than at any other time. Remember, Sandra, Jesus wore a crown of thorns so that we might know His love. Do not resent thorns.”
Tears rolled down Sandra’s cheeks. For the first time since the accident, she loosened her grip on resentment. “I’ll take twelve long-stemmed thorns, please.”
“I hoped you would,” Jenny said. “I’ll have them ready in a minute. Then every time you see them, remember to appreciate both good and hard times. We grow through both.”
“Thank you. What do I owe you?”
“Nothing, Nothing, but a pledge to work toward healing your heart. The first year’s arrangement is always on me.” Jenny handed a card to Sandra. “I’ll attach a card like this to your arrangement, but maybe you’d like to read it first. Go ahead, read it.”
The card read: “My God, I have never thanked Thee for my thorn! I have thanked Thee a thousand times for my roses, but never once for my thorn. Teach me the glory of the cross I bear; teach me the value of thorns. Show me that I have climbed to Thee by the path of pain. Show me that my tears have made my rainbow.”
-- George Matheson --

A Real Chicken

2005-10-16T17:35:00.000-05:00

What a reddening moment!!  We had church this afternoon and my family was supposed to have an inspirational skit.  We wanted something that would involve our children (who are 4 & under) and that kinda limits your choices.  Never the less, we did one where I pretended to be explaining what we are going to be doing, and my wife and children all of a sudden start squawking and flapping their arms like chickens
Me- “What are you doing?”
My son – “We’re Chickens!”
“Do you have feathers?”
“No.”
“Do you eat chicken feed and scratch in the dirt?”
“No.”
“You’re not chickens!  Now come on, be real!”

I then turned back to the crowed and apologized for their behavior and went on with my “explanation.”   My wife and boys, did that again as dogs, and the as Christians, shouting “Halleluiah,” “Praise the Lord.” GLORY,” and passing the hat for the offering.  I turned again to ask what they are doing.

“We’re Christians!”
“That’s great!  Do you also love the Lord with all your heart?”
(Puzzled looks)
“Have you confessed your sins?”
“No.”
“Have you asked Jesus to come into your heart and be Lord of your life?”
“No.”
“Then you’re not Christians.  You need to be real!! You cannot be a real Christian by yourself, anymore than you can be a real chicken!  Only God can come into your heart and make you a real Chicken.”

(from the audience) “You mean a ‘Christian?’”

I lost it and the church was roaring!!  It was a complete gaff on my part, I blew the punch line!!!

Dating or Courtship standards

2005-10-06T08:02:00.000-05:00

Now that I’ve told our story, I’d like to bring up some questions for your thoughts.  We all have ideas about what dating or courtship should look like.  What I am about to share I do not claim to be the final “truth” on the issue but I would like to state that I think that we have a lot to grow in when it comes to our transition from single hood to marriage process.

First, is casual dating ok?  Is it ok to go out with several different people to “get the feeling” for what’s out there?  I don’t know about all you folks but I cannot spend special time with any person without getting either closer to them in spirit, or withdrawing from them.  It rarely is an “emotionally free” time.  Thus we get slightly attached to someone and then cut it off, wad up the hurt inside and try it again with someone else.  When the right person finally comes along, we do not open up like we did with the first because we are worried about getting hurt again.  Thus we proceed with the relationship and never or rarely communicate on a heart level!  Is this not preparation for divorce more so than marriage?  It also raises questions all through life, “what if…?”

If then our purpose is to find a life partner, should we not then wait till we are ready to take on the weight of matrimony?  Is it right to start the car of Courtship rolling if we are not ready to ride it the whole way to the marriage alter?  We received some serious criticism for having a very short courtship.  They felt it was not proper to make a life changing decision so quickly.  While I can understand exactly were they are coming from, I wonder if God did not design some things to be worked thru inside the commitment to marriage instead of taking years to try and do it with no commitment to each other.  We were both older, we both had parents who felt we were ready for marriage, and we both felt the leading of God that this was the person for us!  Why postpone that decision?  We knew we would never find the person with whom we would have no conflict!  Whoever we married would make us work thru some things and that is life!

But I see some couples dating/courting for several years and I wonder, is this best?  Does no this open up them up to a lot of temptation to go past the boundaries or standards that they have set up?  Is this not more likely to make the struggle for purity harder the longer it goes?  We were only courting for a couple days and then engaged for 3 months.  We lived 1500 miles apart and only saw each other for two weeks between our engagement and the week of our marriage.  Still, we struggled!  I cannot imagine trying to live like that for a year or more!

Let me make a suggestion.  Before pursuing a relationship with any one person, talk to your parents.  Ask them if they feel you’re ready for marriage.  Let them help you set up some guidelines and get suggestions for who they feel would make a suitable life partner.  Your parents know you better than any one else, and thus knows who would be best for us often better than we would know ourselves.  Then when we have their blessing, pursue the relationship and when you find that this is the one, get married.

If you think this is extreme, try looking at what they used to do it like!  A guy and a girl spent little, if any, time alone and rarely saw each other before marriage.  It worked then though I think a blend of the two to be the best.

Stauffer Family 2005

2005-10-02T16:22:00.000-05:00

Taken in our Backyard last night despite two very grumpy
and tired little ones. Also our new dog, Bently's first time
in the frame.

Our Love Story - Finale

2005-09-29T22:18:00.000-05:00

If you are just entering this story, you may find it beneficial for your comprehension to read the first 3 parts.

I will try to finish this for all you who just can’t wait for the end of the story when you already know the outcome!  :-) I warn you it’s long!

I broke out in a cold sweat!!
“Ah, this is Japheth Stauffer from Blackduck MN, and I would like to talk to you about what has been happening this past week.  You see, ………”

(laughing)”I told Aimee that she should give me a list of those guys that are acceptable and who isn’t before she leaves.  That’s why I almost said, ‘Let me see if your on the list!’” (I had known prior to the call that I was not the first to ask for Aimee’s friendship!)

We talked for about 15 minutes and I shared my heart and its desire to be a support to Aimee and the love that I had for her.  I also shared that if he gave his blessing and I won her heart, I would marry her and not defraud her by leading her on and then dropping her.  I asked if he could give his blessing on us starting a courtship relationship to which he replied, “I recon’ if your good enough for her, your good enough for me.”

(YESSSS!!!!) “Do you have any recommendations as to when I should ask?”

“I guess it’s up to you, its fine with me.”

HALLELUIAH!!  I hung up the phone and prayed a prayer of thanksgiving.  But I still had one hurdle to cross.  You see, Aimee had grown very close to Marvin & Sylvia in Michigan during her time of teaching school there and I knew she valued their input very much.  I thus had resolved that I would ask them as well.  Aimee had been in communication with them all week and was planning on stopping in there on the way home to visit and see her cancer doctor.
I called their phone over and over again but nobody answered it!!  What’s the good of having a  phone if you don’t answer it!! :-)  Finally I left a message and waited on pins and needles as the afternoon just DRAGGED on forever!  Aimee couldn’t sleep so she came upstairs to see if any one else was awake.  We sat down and played a game of Rummikube and a little later my father joined us.

Finally we had to leave for church where Leroy & Clara Mae Yoder were having their 50th wedding anniversary before we had Singspiration.  I stayed at the celebration for as long as I could stand and then told my Mom that I was going home to see if Marvin had called back yet.  I mean, think about it!!  Why should I be celebrating someone else’s wedding when I could be working on my own! :-)

I got home and he had called!  I prayed before I dialed the phone and he picked up right away.  He was so easy to talk to that we ended up talking for over 2 ½ hours.  Marvin asked some questions that I knew I had reason to be ashamed of my answers but I had committed in my heart that if this was going to be of the Lord, it would have to be done on His principles and that meant complete honesty.  I opened up my heart to him and shared of some of the struggles I had faced and some that I had failed in.  I also shared how that God had given me so much victory over a lot of them though the fight was still intense.  Finally he said that he felt he could give his blessing to my pursuit of Aimee!  I asked if he had any suggestions as to when since they knew of her weak health.  He felt that since Aimee despised people coming on like something that they weren’t, he would suggest as soon as possible!  (AWRIGHT!)

I asked if we could pray before we broke up and he readily agreed.  As soon as we got done praying,

Marvin said, “Japheth, as we were praying, I felt that I need to ask my wife first what she thinks about this.  Could you wait till I talk this over with her?”
(I KNEW we shouldn’t have prayed!....No, that’s not right.  God knows what He’s doing)  “Ok, when do you think you will get back to me?”
“Oh, maybe later tonight or early tomorrow morning.”

I went back to church, not sure how to feel.  I was elated that he felt confident with me but would he be able to convince his wife?  Singspiration had already started when I got there and the church was packed.  In the foyer sat a guy I hadn’t seen for a while and I sat down next to him.  After a few minutes he turned to me and said, “So, I hear you have a girlfriend.”  What was I supposed to say!!!  “Not that I know of.  Do you want to introduce me to her?”  He just kinda shrugged his shoulders and looked at me like he didn’t believe me.

After we got home that evening, I sat around the phone waiting for their call.  Finaly I went to bed at 11:00pm and I think slept between 2-5:00.

Monday - Marvin called first thing in the morning and said that they felt it might be best to wait till Aimee came thru there on the way home and they could talk face to face.  (they also knew about her talking with her eyes!!)  I asked Marvin to pray for me.  My heart was so much involved already that I wasn’t sure I would be able to hide it from her for 3 more days.  We prayed and then hung up the phone.

I went to work that morning and I don’t think that I got one machine fixed all morning!  Finally around lunch I called my mother who was at the chiropractor and asked if we could meet for lunch.  I still remember sitting in the car and weeping to my mother the tears of fear and hurt that I “knew” would be coming.  It felt that I had laid my heart out on a butchers block and it was just waiting to be pounded on by a meat tenderizer.  Mother asked my two very pointed questions.
“Do you believe that God can still work this out?”
“Yes, but it feels like it won’t work out this way!”
“If it is not God’s will for you to get together, do you still want it to work out?”
(pause) “No, but you and Daddy BOTH agree that this is what God is leading us to do!!!”
“Then you need to let it in God’s hands to finish working it out”

I went back to work and about and hour or so later I put on some music to help take my mind off of the situation, (fat chance!) and  turned on a song that went like this.

When my way seems dark and drear and the future I don’t know,
When my feels so empty, as the tears unending flow.
When My heart breaks with sorrow and a tempest fills my soul,
This on thing I know for sure,
My God is in control!

His way is perfect,
His way is perfect.
Though I don’t understand His wise and loving plan.
His way is perfect,
His way is perfect.
Take my life and make a vessel purified,
God makes no mistakes
His way is BEST!

I bowed my head there at my desk and just sobbed.  “Lord I put this whole thing in your hands.  I know that you want the best for both Aimee and my so I turn it over to you and trust that what ever you do will be your best.  And Lord,  If Aimee is better off without me, please help me to be able to bear it.”  I can’t say that there was an immediate sense of peace but there was a resignation to the fact that it was out of my hands and into God’s.

About an hour later the phone rings.  “Hello, Vac & Sew.”

“Japheth, this is Daddy.  Are you sitting down?”
“Yes.”   ?!
“Where would you like to take Aimee for supper tonight?”
“WHAT!!”

When my mother had arrived home, she told my father about our talk.  Daddy also had some concerns but hadn’t voiced them to me to avoid more fretting on my part.  What if Aimee calls home before she leaves?  Their going to be asking her if she’s dating and if she likes the guy and all those other questions and Aimee isn’t going to know what is going on.  Daddy decided to call Marvin and talk things over.  Marvin heard Daddy out and then said, “Bob let us call Aimee and talk to her on the phone.  There are some things we know and maybe we should talk a little more.”  Now let me back up a little

That Monday morning, Aimee was alone for the first time in our house, so she called Sylvia.  “Sylvia, I need you to pray for me in a way that I never really asked before.  You see, there’s this guy up here and I just want you to pray with me that God would guard my heart.”  They talked for a while and then hung up.  Sylvia was giddy with curiosity to know if it was the same guy that they talked to last night!

Back to the afternoon;  Marvin called and told Aimee that a guy had asked for permission to court her and wondered if she felt up to entertaining the idea.  She stated that it depended on who was!!  Marvin kind of hedged around and finally told her that he wasn’t in the house there but was probably still at work.
Aimee: “You mean HE ASKED?!!”
They stated that “he had” and that they had asked him to wait till Aimee came thru MI to they all could talk about it.
Aimee: “I’m not sure I want him to wait.”
Marvin said that he did not know what would happen but they wanted to talk with her first.  They immediately called my dad back and stated that Japheth had their full blessing to pursue Aimee.  Thus the call to me.

After I hung up from Daddy’s bombshell, I bowed my head and wept again, not tears of frustration this time but tears of peace and thankfulness in the knowledge that God would not violate the trust I placed in Him.

Monday Evening: as I came in the door, Aimee was pitting cherries next to the table and she immediately looked into my eyes to see what might be showing there!  I quickly hurried upstairs and pretended to look in the mirror and make it look like I had come up there for a purpose.  Finally I worked up the nerve to come down and sit by the table, across from Aimee with a bouquet between for a buffer. :-)  My dad was grinning like a cat!  After trying to chat with him and he almost laughing in my face I turned to Aimee and asked, “ Would you mind gracing me with your presence at supper tonight?”
(nod)
“What was that?” (peering past the “buffer” to “see” what she was saying)
(eye contact and a nod) “Yes”
She went and got changed and Daddy and Mommy prayed with us before we left.  After opening her door and then getting in my side, I asked “Are you nervous?”
“Yeah”
“Me to!”
Neither of us had ever been on a date and were both walking on new ground.  Being as we both wanted to talk and  neither wanted to eat, we got a little ice cream and sat by the lake and talked for 3 hours.  It was so rewarding to talk about all that God had been showing us the week before and how our hearts had been separately pulled towards each other.  We talked about our goals in life, mostly spiritually but a few other things like missions and such.  I bought her a dozen roses and we went home to arrange them in a vase.

We decided that since I wanted to meet Marvin & Sylvia as well as hear what the doctor had to say, I would take Aimee over to Michigan and her ride would meet us there.

Wednesday:  We had spent quite a bit of Tuesday together, getting her CAT films for the doc to look at, picking up her prescription, taking a canoe ride, going to a youth church service, and such.  By this morning I sensed that her heart was rapidly coming my way.  I was gladly seeing this yet I knew that I needed to tell her some of the things I told Marvin if I was to be totally open and forthright with her.  As we traveled, we prayed together, sang together, laughed together, and yes, cried together.  (We each did enough of that the past week we should at least do a little together, eh?)  I shared the things I felt I needed to and Aimee graciously forgave me and said she wouldn’t dump me.
By the evening, I knew her heart was firmly in my camp, but what to do now?

When we arrived at Marvin’s, we were greeted very warmly and had an enjoyable evening together and much to soon for the children, they were sent of to bed so the adults could talk.  I proceeded to share with them all that you have been reading the last few days, and about the time that I got to the song I filled in above, Marvin got up and took a photo from the wall and handed it to me.  It was a picture that Aimee had taken of Lake Michigan and it is partly overcast and you don’t know if it is clouding over or clearing up.  On the back was a verse from Isaiah and a note thanking them for shepherding her heart.  I got tears in my eyes because it showed once again the tender spirit that my wife had and her gratefulness for those who blessed her.

Marvin told me he wanted me to keep it.  Whoa!!  Wait a Minute!!  She gave it to them as a token of her heart!  Maybe she doesn’t want me to have it yet?  I finally turned to Aimee and asked if she wanted me to keep it and she said yes.

Remember what I had told Marvin and her father?  Did I have her heart?

“Aimee, when I asked your father and Marvin for permission to court you.  I stated that if I won your heart that I would marry you.  Have I won your heart?”
(nod)
“Will you marry me?”
(NOD, NOD)

We were all crying then!!  As we all prayed together, we realized what we were facing.  The next day would be the visit to the doctor and he would tell us if the cancer was coming back.  We also could likely be sterile and never bear children.  I distinctly remember Marvin praying that God would bless this vow with children someday.

The story is not quite over yet but I want to interject this here.  What you have just read was until now only know to probably 30-50 close friends.  Why have I shared it?  Not because I think that other young people should pattern their courtship after ours!  In fact I would discourage it!  It is dangerous to make lifelong decisions very quickly.  Having said that, I cannot argue the fact the God worked something special in our lives.  If you want to copy something, copy this, the principle of being under authority.  If our parents had not been involved as heavily as they were, this would have been the most stupid thing that we could have done.  As it was, God chose to honor because we made the decision to stay under His authorities for our lives.  And THAT, is where the peace and joy lies!

The next day the doctor told us that we need to get cancer out of our heads!  Aimee was in good  health and the CAT scan showed that we would likely be able to have children.  He didn’t know what was causing the sleeplessness and that has puzzled us to this day though the symptoms disappeared after the birth of our first child.

We have four precious children and next years model will be here sometime in April.  We also look forward to meeting our set of twins, David and Daisy, and our other child Jewel, at the great white throne.  God needs children in Heaven too!

A Face from Red Lake.

2005-09-27T07:25:00.000-05:00

Most of you folks remember the school shootings at Red Lake High School here in Minnesota. That is only about 45 minutes away from where we live and I had been in that school several times before the shooting.

One of the boys that was seriously wounded in that shooting had to go through a bunch of serious surgeries. All the time his mother was at his side. Then about a month after the shootings, she had a stroke and has been and invalid ever since. She is currently staying in a Rehab place and is very lonely. A Native Christian who has befriended her, asked for some people to sing for her. She is not a Christian but has been very open to the things of the Lord every since her stroke. Please pray for us as we try to share some light and His love with her this afternoon.

Love Story, Part 3

2005-09-26T23:10:00.000-05:00

If you are just joining in the story, please read Parts 1 & 2 first for the context.

Over these last few days, I had been talking with my parents about Aimee and what I was feeling in my heart for her. They also thought that she was a Godly young lady and a very eligible candidate for marriage. In fact, Wednesday evening, Aimee wore a white dress with a small white print on it and after she headed downstairs for bed that night, Daddy turns to me and says “She sure looks good in white, eh?” ARGHHHH!! “Yes.”

I think it was about Thursday morning that I asked my parents if I could ask her out, after her father of course! My parents felt that maybe she was too worn out right now and that might affect my chances and make her worse with the added strain of no sleep. Yet at the same time, they like I saw that Aimee communicated with her eyes as much as with her words and understood that I wanted to be able to “see” what she was saying.

My sisters also had to put their two cents worth in, “Don’t you DARE ask her while she’s still here!!! She will feel very awkward if she says no and she may never want to come back again. PLUS, she is very emotionally drained and not able to even think about a boyfriend! We think that she is a great girl but at least WAIT TILL SHE LEAVES!!” As fast as my sisters can talk, this is only a summary of the earfuls I got that week.

That week will forever be etched in my memory and heart. I was losing my sleep now! I would not be able to get to sleep until about 2 in the morning and then wake up at 5 again. I was taking my lunch box to work and bringing it back with nothing touched. Of course I was stupid and had to state at the supper table how “I just wasn’t hungry anymore. That earned me a couple glares from the sister portion of the table and a couple thrashings later; “She’s got to be absolutely stupid to not catch on to all the hints you’re dropping! You’ve GOT to keep a better rein on your emotions or you’re going to lay it all out in front of her!” They were right and I knew it. I did catch wind that she liked pizza and so I brought some home for the family as a “celebration of getting my final electrical inspection passed on my house!”

July 16 Sunday
Over the last few days, I had been praying for a rehma from the Lord for what I should do. As I was reading in Proverbs that morning, the verse that stood out to me was; “In the multitude of councilors, there is safety.” I didn’t know what to make of it though. I had asked all the “councilors” I wanted to. I wasn’t about to take a church poll!!
I went to church that morning and my sisters and Aimee sat in front of us and as we sang the song, “I Love You, Lord Jesus” I saw tears rolling down her cheeks. I also cried. I so longed to be able to offer her some word of comfort or at least be there for her so she did not need to face this alone. I realized that she may be dying but I remember praying that even if we only had a year together, I would gladly help bear her grief and count it an honor.

After church, Val Yoder came up to me and laid a hand on my chest, kept it there for a few seconds and then stated, “Yep, your hearts still there!” All of a sudden I remembered! I had talked to Val just before Aimee came and expressed my confusion over what God might be saying. He at that time had told me just treat her like a sister and wait for God to make His move. I said “Val, I am in deep dutch,” and explained to him all that had been happening the last week.
He smiled really big and then asked, “Do you all agree that you should ask her?”
“Yes, the only thing we disagree on is, when.”
“Then maybe you should take the first step. Ask her father. If he says “No,” you have your answer. If he says “Yes,” maybe he will have some advice as to when.”
HALLELUIAH!! Why hadn’t I thought of that!

As soon as our family was all in the car, (Aimee had left part way thru the service due to extreme weakness) I quickly told them what Val had said. They all agreed and gave their blessing to call her father that afternoon.

After lunch, of which I ate little, I went out to the shop to make that fateful call to Virginia. Now put yourself in my shoes, I had never met this girl until 10 days ago and now I was calling to ask her father for permission to court his daughter. Not date, but court, with the full intention that if I won her heart, I would marry her! To top it off, the only picture I had seen of this guy was him all puckered up to play a harmonica!
With a quick prayer;
(ring)
“Hello?”
“Hello, is this Elizabeth?” (Aimee’s mom, except nobody but nobody called her Elizabeth, she was Betty!)
“Ah, yeah, sure.”
“This is Japheth Stauffer from Blackduck, MN and I was wondering if I could speak to Frank?”
“Uh, sure, hold on.” (in the background amidst the sound of the phone being passed) “Frank, it’s some guy from out where Aimee’s at!”
“Heylow?” (it was a deep sounding voice that would take no nonsense from any body and was bored and not sure what kind of a bother this was going to be!)

Love Story, Part 2

2005-09-25T18:39:00.000-05:00

If you are just checking in, please read Part 1 first to get the context.

I turned and started walking back the path to my house and I prayed “Lord, What is this? Some kind of practical joke?!” I went to prayer meeting that night very much confused and nervous about what the next few days might bring.

July 6, 2000 I arrived home from work to find that “she” would not be arriving until after supper time. I was as nervous as a June bug on a hot skillet! My sisters went downstairs to sew while I prepared for our young men’s accountability meeting that night.

About 7:00 I heard the dogs putting up an awful ruckus and since the girls were downstairs sewing, I figured I would be the gentleman and “call them off.” I went outside about the same time as Aimee got out of the car. I know that this sounds like fiction but something flipped inside!! I quick went back in the house just as my sisters came barreling out the door, squealing and hugging as only girls do. I was so shook up that I stood inside for awhile watching thru the sheer curtains. Finally I worked up enough nerve to step back outside. My sisters graciously introduced us and then I had to hurry off to our guys meeting. At that meeting, the Lord was really there!! We four guys had an awesome time of sharing, confessing, and praying for each other. I told the guys that I was really struggling with what God wanted me to do with my future. (Though I didn’t breathe a word about the girl who just came!!) I asked them to pray with me that He would reveal His plan quickly, as I had some “decisions” to make.

I came back to my folk’s house all pumped up and thrilled with what had happened and couldn’t help but share the joy with my sisters, who also had their “company” with them.

July 7 I got up that morning and heard that Aimee had not slept well during the night. She was still getting over the effects of ovarian cancer that she had dealt with the fall before. It caused her to struggle with insomnia, getting only 3-5 hours of sleep a night in spite of being completely exhausted. My heart went out to her and I wished there was something I could do but knew there was not and so left it alone.

That evening went I got home from work, I walk in the house and quickly saw that the girls had been “scrap booking.” Aimee had been resting on the sofa and I made some sort of comment about having another “sofa cushion.” I quickly went on to say that if she was going to live with us for 2 long, terrible weeks, I would have to treat her like I treated my sisters, teasing and all!! She stated that it was fine with her, and then came over to me and handed me a picture.

“Here, I’d like to show you something.”

I looked at the photo and saw what looked like a dark room with a lot of surgical drapes and in the middle of them were two pairs of gloved hands holding a bloody organ.

“Is this of your surgery?”
(nod)
“Interesting.”
What was I supposed to say now?

When supper was over I asked if I could look thru her photo album which was sitting at the end of the table. She agreed and stayed at the table to explain the scenery and family pictures to me as I had questions. As I looked thru her photo album, I saw all the little writings that make scrapbooks fun to look thru, and I quickly saw that she was not angry with God for making her go thru this trying ordeal of cancer. It really hit me when I read,

It’s worth the pain,
It’s worth the joy.

In my heart I knew that this girl was one who had made her peace with God and was holding out open hands for whatever He saw fit to give her.

I went to bed that night and prayed for God to show me His will concerning this special girl that He had brought into our home. I also prayed that I would not show her my heart or the struggle that I was facing concerning her.

July 8-12
Over the next few days, I struggled hard with my heart! I did not in any way want to defraud her heart by leading her into thinking that I was interested unless I KNEW that she was the one for me! She continued to struggle to sleep and was often found lying on the sofa for most of the day and barely able to hold her head up. My parents wondered if the cancer might be coming back and arranged for her to get a CAT scan done on Wednesday. That was my day off and since I had promised to make a crib quilt for one of my best friends who had had their first child, I decided to get that started. I so distinctly remember being in the basement and hearing Aimee weeping out of exhaustion and frustration of not being able to sleep. I sat down there and wept along; praying God would comfort this precious girl who had been thru so much. About mid morning, she came down to see how I was coming along. I asked her, “How’s your heart?” To which she responded, “Fine.” (Dumb!! What was I asking her THAT for?!!!)

She went in about lunch time for her CAT scan and I was a praying, anxious boy!! When she got home I heard the garage door going up and quickly ran upstairs to hear how it went. When she came in the door and saw me “looking” at her, with as little concern as I could muster, SHE WHIPPED A PILLOW IN MY FACE!

They found out that there was a cist on her remaining ovary and it could be the start of the cancer coming back. She would have to take the films to Michigan were her cancer doctor was to verify and make sure that’s what it was.

Our Love Story, Part 1

2005-09-23T21:25:00.000-05:00

Well I’ve decided to take the time to put our love story into words. WRITTEN! A friend, Glen, over at Random Pitches, told me to that I am allowed to do it in installments and since I have his permission, and not 2-3 hours to type it out in one shot, you get the first one now and the next, well… when it’s published! J

To start with, I am one of those weird guys that thinks it is right and proper to ask a girls father first before making any intentions known to her. After all, he is her protector and God ordained, legal guardian. I believe very much in being under your God given authority so if in this story you wonder why I do some of these things, this is the reason.

June, Second Week, 2000
For the last two years I had been building my house as the funds came in and as it neared completion, I began to get antsy about who was to live in it with me. Living in a small church with a youth group you could count on one hand, minus a few fingers, the number of gals close to my age, I didn’t have a lot of picking choices. I thought of going to the “shoe factory,” more commonly known as SMBI, where they take an old heel, mend his soul, and send them away in pairs! J But with my job, that was out of the question! I had tried asking two Godly young ladies fathers and they both after prayer turned me down.

This weekend was our church’s campout. After it was over Sunday afternoon, we sat around as a family and were discussing things of heart issues and areas that had been touched that weekend. It was a special time since my two siblings had returned from their places of service for a few weeks and it was nice to be a family again! I had often talked to my father about a wife and the two young ladies he had also felt good about were the ones that had turned me down! I, being very shy and withdrawn, decided to ask the family for advice in finding a life partner. We talked for a while and then my brother suggested a girl from up in Canada that I also knew but hadn’t had a lot of contact for the last five years. My sister suggested a girl by the name of Aimee Beery whom she had met the year before at Family Camp and had been in correspondence with since. In fact when she had gotten back from FOCIS, she had told me of a girl she had met there who would make a good wife for me. My older sister said, “ehh… Japheth would run right over her, she’s so soft spoken.”

I knew the girl in Canada, I had never met this girl in Michigan/Virginia. She taught school in MI. but lived in VA. I told my younger sister that though this Aimee might be a very Godly young lady, how was I to get to know her? Just show up on her doorstep and say that I hear she is a nice young lady an I’d like to get to know her? Hmmm!!??

I decided to let it rest for a while.

July 4, 2000
Havign the day off of work, I spent it painting the newly finished walls in my house. I also decided to spend the day in fasting and prayer concerning the girl in Canada. All that day, as I worked and prayed I felt DEAD. I don’t think that those bare sheetrock walls even echoed. I read my Bible during “meal times” and even that did not hold any “life” for me. Finally at the end of the day, I bowed my head in tears of frustration and said, “Lord, I do not know why you have me in the waiting room. But I do not feel right in moving forward until you give me the peace and direction. I am tired of being in the waiting room, the seats are uncomfortable, and the magazines are boring, I want out! Yet, I will wait here till you show me how to move forward.”

I was resigned to the fact that God knew I was there and would lead me when He was ready.

July 5, 2000
I got home from work mentally exhausted from dealing with grumpy women and their sewing machines all day. As I came in the door, my younger sister met me and with a huge grin on her face said, “Guess who’s coming to stay for two weeks?” My first thought was “Two Weeks!! That means it’s probably a family and I will have to move out of my room to allow them to stay in the house.” Argh!!
(outwardly) “Who”
“Aimee Beery”
“You mean THE Aimee Beery?”
“Yes, THE Aimee Beery!”
“When?”
“Tommorrow….”

Redeeming the Time

2005-09-18T13:27:00.000-05:00

This morning we had a sermon by my best friend, Keith, who’s also the husband of Destination Glory land. Once again I am impressed that you need not be ordained to hear God’s voice and then share a sermon.

What he spoke on was TIME. (Not the magazine either!) We all are different in so many ways. Some are wealthy, some are not, some have had tough childhoods, and others have had glorious ones. We cannot choose what nation we were born in, who are parents are, how we look, what we inherit, the times we live in, all of these were chosen by God for us. The only thing that we ALL have in common is this; we all have the same amount of time in a day.

What am I going to do with it?

Do I spend my time pursuing those things and really matter? Or do I more often, get so caught up in the “cares of life,” that I forget whose time I’m using. We so often think that if we do a few “big things” for God, we are the same as those doing a lot of little things. I don’t know. God wants us to be open to giving ALL of our time to Him if He asks for it! Yet I for one, have so often “done my part” and felt that I was free to go. Like when quitting time comes at the end of the day, I have done my duty to my boss and now it’s my time to do with as I see fit! I am ashamed to say that I think this way often and it’s sobering to be reminded of how far my heart can stray form being continually on the alter.

The thought that keeps running thru my head is this, when I get to the great white throne of God, what will he judge me on? I am beginning to wonder if it will not be in relation to how I have responded to the Lordship of Christ and how have I used my time for Him. If I waste my time on myself, then I am just like the unfaithful servant who buried his master’s talent in the ground and waited for Him to come back and claim it. He didn’t want to spend his time on his master’s work when his master had many other, more important people working for him.

Am I redeeming the time, or are the days not yet evil?

He heareth our Cry

2005-09-16T21:16:00.000-05:00

We just got word from our son’s eye surgeon that after conferring with his college, he thinks it is ok for us to wait for six months or so to do the surgery. Praise the Lord!! This has been an answer to prayer because I hope in that amount of time to be able to pay for it!

I know it was something little but to me, it was a “God” thing!!

Ho & Hum of Life

2005-09-11T16:01:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I told you I wouldn’t be here for a while! Now I have returned but don’t know what to say or more like it, where to start.

Last month we went to a family camp for a week and what a blessing it was to not have to think about anything other than being together as a family and listening to some very inspired speakers, giving insight in how better to train our children and work together as husband and wife. Sadly, I realized that I have woefully failed at both many times. But it was good to here from God in that quiet setting and start to make some of the changes that were long overdue.

We arrived home to a mess of sewing parts in the basement, between 150-200 ears of sweet corn waiting for the freezer, and about 10 sewing machines waiting to be picked up. My new business venture has started out well though it has had its bumps that I still ponder at. But God has been gracious!! I was granted the contract to service two schools sewing machines but they both needed to be done before Labor day and had to be done on site! So, in the space of 3 days, I ended up servicing around 30 machines and putting in about 250 miles! But what a blessing that will be for some of our outstanding debts!

The hardest part of the last month has been the realization that our youngest child will have to face surgery for his eyes. He has always been a little cross eyed since birth but we kept waiting and hoping he would grow out of it. He hasn’t so this past week, we took him to see the eye surgeon who confirmed our fears, he would need to have a muscle detached from the one side of his eye and reattached back 3.5mm from where it had been. The problem comes though when we talked about costs. Do we go ahead with the surgery when we do not have the money or insurance to pay for it? Or do we wait for God to supply the funds before we make plans for surgery?

It is here that I so often fail in my faith towards God. I can trust Him if there is nothing I can do in a situation, but is that really trust??!!! We believe that God has called us to live debt free and though we failed in that this past spring, it is still our aim. When God says that He will supply some of our needs….NO! ALL OF OUR NEEDS, do I take that literally or think of it abstractly concerning others?

Then this morning sermon hit me so hard between the eyes that my teeth hurt! If someone tells us they will come over and help with a project, do we believe them? How do they feel if we don’t? Then it was brought out that so often we believe what others tell us but we so often doubt what God tells us. Let me ask again, when we doubt what God said, how does it make Him feel? Where am I REALLY putting my trust?

God Help me to rest in your care and provision and not in my own short sightedness!

Ok, so I found something to write about, sorry to take up so much of your time with my ramblings!

A Little Child Shall Lead...

2005-08-14T16:12:00.000-05:00

"I have no greater joy than to know that my children walk in truth!" Amen!

This afternoon I had something happen during Singspiration at our church. We have been working with our 18 month old daughter to fold her hands together when we pray. This afternoon, being somewhat tired and wanting to figit all the time, we gave her a carrot to naw on for a while. She was busy at it when the leader ask people to bow their heads to pray. To the best of my knowledge, she had not been paying attention at all to the song leader, but she quickly dropped her carrot and folder her hands to pray! I forget what the prayer was about! All I know was that my heart just about burst to see her taking the effort to prepare for prayer! Oh how I long for her to continue to have that same attitude to her heavenly Father. It is my greatest joy and my deepest desire! Yet I feel so inadequate to the task of training my children to walk like Christ when I struggle so often with it myself!! Makes me wish that I had had my children back when I was 18-20 and "knew" a lot more than I know now! :-)

I must do my best and trust God to help them overcome my human failings.

This week is the week of big change. I find out from my boss tomorrow if they want me to buy the service department or not. Then a busy week of doing up sweet corn, setting up shop, ordering supplies, preparing for family camp next week, and trying to keep my sanity. I so look forward to being at home 6 out of 7 days! Glory! What will I do with myself!! I think my wife will find something! :-)

She is finding lots of things to do these days since we found out that next years model will arrive in April. Truly we are blessed!! From having ovarian cancer before we ever met and wondering if we would ever have children, to having 5 in 5 1/2 years, Wheeww!! But oh the thrill of hearing them come running and calling "Papa, Papa!!" it warms my heart.

A Stitch In Time

2005-08-07T13:07:00.000-05:00

For those of you who have wondered if I have dropped off the face of the earth, I assure you that I am alive and kicking and never been so busy in my life!!

Where do I start? A little over a month ago, I gave my bosses my letter of resignation effective August 31. I had decided with the advise of my father and wife to end my 8 year career as a sewing machine salesman and technician at the store in Bemidji. I was undecided as to what to pursue but felt led to wait on the Lord to make His path plain. After much discussion over possible careers and job opportunities, my father advised me to look at starting my own business and working from my home. I prayed about it with my wife and she heartily agreed that she would love to have me home more often and felt that this was the best thing we could do. Thus I have started my own company called, A Stitch In Time, Sewing Machine Repair.

I will be working at home but since we live in the sticks and to far away for most people to drive, I have been setting up accounts with two businesses so far to do all their machine repairs. I will make the trip twice a week to pick up and drop off machines and do the service work at home. Needless to say, the last two weeks have been very busy getting ready for business as well as keeping the home fires burning.

I am a little nervous about being out on my own but I have the promise of David "...I have never seen the righteous forsaken, nor their seed begging bread." I know God will provide and I am grateful to live in a country where we have the freedom and resources to pursue our own careers.

If you think about me over the next few weeks, I would covet you prayers! I want to leave a Godly testimony for Christ as I leave and not a cocky attitude.

If you don't see me here too much, now you know why! :-)

Filled with What?

2005-07-20T06:56:00.000-05:00

My mother often told me, "Never go grocery shopping when your hungry, everything will look good to you and you'll end up with a lot that you don't need or is good for you!" I must admit that she is right! At my job, I get a hour long lunch break and that is often when I do the grocery shopping for us since we live 30 miles from town. Some days I have been in to much of a hurry to eat my lunch first and get to the store still hungry. Bad move!! I end up spending about twice what I would have needed to! (but the Cheetos's, pop, chips, and chicken wings were very good! :-)

On Sunday we had all the youth at our house due to us having A/C and the youth leaders did not. It was 95+ and quite sticky so they were all glad to come over. We had supper and then a time of sharing. It was during this time that God used something that Dawson said to really stir me, it's not what you don't eat that makes the difference, but what your filled with that counts! I so often focus on what I shouldn't do that I leave an 'empty stomach' that craves all sorts of other things. I need to fill it with good stuff and then the appetite for the things of this world will diminish. Just like this, if you are hungry and you haven't eaten at Hardee's for a long time and you long for a roast beef sandwich! Hmmmm! But you also know that till you put the mayo, ketchup, cheese, bacon, and ranch dressing on it, plus the fries, you might as well apply it right to your waist! So you decide to eat something a little more healthy at Subway. You buy one of their nice, foot long, lettuce filled subs and happily devour it. When you are done, you might still think that Hardee's sounds OK, but not right now, you're not hungry, there is not the same appeal of an hour ago!

So it is with Christ, if you want to have less of a struggle with the world, you need to quit staring at the things you shouldn't do, and instead, continually fill yourself with Christ and His word. You'll find that "the things of this world will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace!" Thank you Jesus!

Children and Converts

2005-07-17T07:42:00.000-05:00

Just a thought; When a husband and wife have a close, intimate relationship, children are one of the natural outcomes of it.

We as Christians, are the bride of Christ. If we are in close communion and fellowship with Him, will not new babes in Christ be one of the natural outcomes of our walk with God?

Secondly, we would never say that we do not want another convert so soon after the "first" one, yet we do that with our children. Marriage was not created just for our enjoyment, but as a reflection on what our relationship with God should be like. Thus, is it an error on our part to try to limit God's hand in either area, because we don't know if we can handle it, or whatever excuse we so often come up with?

Horse or Mule?

2005-07-12T22:18:00.000-05:00

Are you a “horse” Christian or a “mule” Christian? What’s the difference you may ask? Your right, they both eat the same food, they both do the same kind of work, the both live in the same kind of place, they look very similar, they even sound somewhat alike. What is the difference?

The horse can reproduce, the mule cannot!

Jesus said that every branch that beareth not fruit will be cut down and throne into the fire and burned. What kind of Christian are we?

So often I can get caught up in “my” life that I forget I gave it away to Christ. What does He want me to do with it. One thing that He has made abundantly clear is that I am to tell others about His love and coming judgment. I am to bear fruit!! But do I?! Am I willing to sacrifice my time, my reputation to my customers, my easy life to tell others of the right way to walk? Many times I have to answer “No.”

When we looked at going to Thailand in mission work, a great Brother, Luke Kuepfer, talked about a paradigm for church planting in that culture and I wonder, would it work here?

As a way to reach people, you start an English class. You use a bible based learning to read curriculum and after a few times you may notice that one of your students is more interested in what the lessons are saying than in what they are teaching. You take him aside and when he asks you questions about what your saying in class, you respond by giving him the basic plan of salvation and your life testimony over the next couple meetings. You then ask if he would like to receive this same Jesus into his heart. If he says “no” then you need to keep working on the need of salvation and personal repentance. If he says “yes” then you teach him on who he is in Christ, baptize him and show him the promises of God for His children. But, within a short time, (weeks not months) you set him or her down and give them a paper and tell them to write down all the people they know on a conversational level who don not know Jesus as their Savior. It may take them some time to come up with this but when they are done, tell them to pick out 3 people and tell them about what Jesus has done in their lives. If they are unwilling to do this, then we need to go back to the salvation issue and relearn what Christ calls us to do as His child.

Then when he has started telling others about Jesus, don’t have him bring them back to you, you teach the first guy and let him teach those HE has lead to the Lord. To often we want to quick bring them into OUR church and make them dependant on us! If we lived out the Great Commission in our daily lives, and taught others to do so as well, Christ’s kingdom would explode! If you don’t believe me, read the first few chapters of Acts.

Would this paradigm work here in America? The very worst it would do is get us off our duffs and put Christ at the center of our lives instead of something we try to fit into it.

Are you a spiritual horse, or a spiritual mule? What would Jesus say?

Thanks AIG for this fitting cartoon!

Of What Profit?

2005-07-04T19:10:00.000-05:00

Though relatively new to the world of blogging, I see a pattern and it is often mirrored in our lives. If I were to sum it up it would be this, "Talk, rarely turns into, Walk." We can spend so much time talking about issues, analyzing them, defending them, justifying them, rationalizing them, and yes, attacking them that we never step back, look introspect, and ask, "Does this need to change in my life?" If we never ask this question, or worse yet, if we ask it and never are willing to deal with it, we are only filled with so much hot air and will never amount to much.

Let me back up a bit and ask is discussion and debate even necessary in the church? I will answer with an unmitigated "Yes!" We are told by Paul to "...contend for the faith," by Solomon, "as iron sharpeneth iron, so a man sharpeneth the countenance of a friend." What happens when you sharpen something, there is friction, there is heat, and yes there is pain when sparks fly. Yet look at what Jesus did while he was here on earth. Did He debate and challenge the status quo? Absolutely! He called the leaders of that day to task for their hypocrisies and when one of them came to Him for a personal dialogue, Jesus challenged him and stretched his thinking. But look with me if you will at what Nicodemaus's response was. Now wait, you say, the Bible does not record what he said in response. Your right, but that is no as important as to what he DID! Look at the end of Jesus life and you will see a man bold in his faith and willing to go before great men of state to plead for the body of his Lord.

I have seen people who can argue persuasively both sides of an argument yet continue to waffle back and forth for years. If talking does not lead to a closer walking, than we have wasted only so much time!

Secondly, people are always talking about standards. We all tend to feel that our standards are the most scriptural and others are either hyper-spiritual, or too liberal for scriptural accuracy. Thus we often tend to use offensive terms when referring to our brothers and sisters in a different denomination. Once again, is it ok to talk about them and examine the consistency of a certain stand? Yes, provided we take what we read back to the word of God and examine if there is error, or a better way, in what we believe. I am by no means perfect and realize the need for others to help me be consistent and keep walking in a straight line. It is so easy to have a "blind spot" that makes sense to me but is glaringly wrong when seen from others perspectives. I have often had to eat crow when I realized that I have gone off on my own little trail and ignored the advice of my brethren. The goal of the brotherhood is first and foremost to seek, to save, and disciple the lost, and secondly to promote growth in each others spiritual lives.

Let me use an illustration from my father. Picture with me the goal post of football. The ground is the world and in the possession of the devil. The stadium roof is face to face fellowship with God, heaven. Each church has placed the lower bar at level that is the lowest that you can have and still be saved. The sides are to provide some uniform consistency in our fellowship. When we first came to Christ, we crossed that lower bar. Our goal is not to stay close to the bar, but to draw closer to God. Thus we start our upward journey and some of us have traveled farther than others. Some people forget the trail they've traveled and want to raise the bar to their current height and thus discourage those that are starting on their journey. Others want to lower the bar so that more can get in. Let me say right up front that God will not move His bar for anybody! The Bible is very clear about what will and will not get into heaven. Read the Bible literally and with an open mind and you will find it. That is HIS bar and will ALWAYS be His bar.

The problem comes for us in living Holy in our daily lives. This is the time to remember that we are growing and so are others. Are they living in sin? If so, warn them, if not, encourage them in their walk but remembering that they may not be in the same awareness and sensitivity to the Spirit that we have grown into. As Christ’s church, we are like a wheel. A wheel with only spoke on one side is useless. We need to balance each other out but sadly we often just go our different ways and take pot shots at each other from across denominational lines. I don’t believe this was ever God’s plan. Let us never become so egotistical that we feel we have the upper hand in understanding God. We can always learn from our brethren of all like-precious faiths.

Let me bring this to a close. We must NEVER forget that we have a number one priority, which is winning the lost. If we lose that we will forever be filled with infighting and bickering and sadly some of our Mennonite churches are in exactly this place. We have not fulfilled our duty to the lost by simply dropping the offering in the mission fund. If winning souls is not part of our daily walk, we have yet to know the true heart of Christ!

A Father's Pleasure

2005-06-19T23:05:00.000-05:00

The last three days I have had the privalige of working with my two sons at home. We did all sorts of things, from cutting dead limbs out of trees, to weeding the garden, (your welcome honey! ;-) to helping grandpa in his shop, to fishing, camping out, roasting hot dogs, playing in the sand, cutting wood, making dinner, and a host more. I found out what my father had told me numorous times as I was growing up was true, he really enjoyed doing things with his boys. I had so much fun that I didn't care how tired I was. I didn't mind so much that it took twice as long for them to set the table as for me too. I loved being with them, teaching them and watching the fruit come forth in their lives.

Today was Father's day. My wife called bright and early, before we even got in from the tent, to wish me a happy fathers day! I thought about that a lot today. As much as I love to be with my children and to see them grow, it doesn't even come close to what God must feel when we walk with Him and learn the lessons He would have us to. That must be His ultimate "Father's Day."

The verse that sums up my feelings better than anything is: "I have no greater JOY, than to know my children walk in truth." Amen!!

Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child...

2005-06-18T17:24:00.000-05:00

My wife left me. Well, only for a week, but that's pretty close to desertion, don't you think?!

In all seriousness, I am glad she got the oppurtunity to go east to see her family and witness the wedding of her first cousin. She took the two youngest with her so it's just me and the boys at home. We are coping well, however the first evening, Jeremiah, our second born, leaned over to Japheth and whispered something and then started trotting in to the house. I asked him where he was going. He responded with "I need to talk to Mama." I picked him up and had to fight back tears myself as I told him that we needed to be brave cause Mama wasn't coming back for a long time. (Try to be two and a half and see how long a week without your mother is!!!) We have been having a good time though. I have off of work from Thursday thru Sunday so I could spend time with them and maybe lessen the pain a bit. We are camping out this evening in a tent in our back yard, something they have been begging for, and we went fishing for sunfish yesterday, and today we made a sandbox and cut a bunch of wood for our kitchen stove. I ran the woodsplitter and the boys filled the wagon. In the picture below, they stacked all the wood between the ranked ends! I was so proud of them!!

This below, is our new sandbox. My father graciously donated the sand and now the children have a new way to get dirty! One more thing accomplished that I wanted to get done this long weekend off of work. Or maybe I should say, paying work. :-)

As far as cooking, well, all I can say is thank God for parents close by, and Hamburger Helper!!

Meandering Thoughts

2005-06-08T20:53:00.000-05:00

This last week has been a blur. Having a Track and Field day at our church for all the homeschoolers in the area last Friday, having company both Saturday and Sunday, starting Vacation Bible School on Monday and I'm supposed to be the superintendent. Lately I've felt the load heavier and it has cost me some of my peace, trying to be all things to all people.

A few postings ago I alluded to a area of shortcoming in my life. That area is the pride of my heart. I do almost everything to be seen of and well thought of by men. It has gotten to the point that I spend more time considering how to say something in a interesting or clever way, without even asking God if He wants me to say it in the first place. I finally came to a brokenness about three weeks ago one Friday night. I realize that I have nothing worth giving in and of myself. I am worthless without Gods direct intervention. I had to ask for forgiveness from my church, for while I did not come across arrogantly all the time, I know it was in my heart and I thought "Listen up! You need to hear this!" I realize this was sin. God calls it such over and over in Scripture. It's so bad He says He will "resist the proud." No wonder I have felt like I was fighting God for the last few months!

I confessed it to the Lord and ask Him what he would have me do. I felt Him telling me to remove the area I was most tempted in, leading out at church. I confessed it to the Brotherhood and asked for their forgiveness which the graciously gave. I felt I had emptied myself of all that I held of worth, but I had my peace back. God was so real when He said, "Let the peace of God rule in your heart." When we lose that peace, we had better go back to where we lost it and confess the sin, or we will never have the peace again.

Now, I find that I have again sought to do it all on my own and again come up woefully short, even with my children. I try and try to teach them what is right, only to have them turn around and disobey again. Maybe we aren't so different, just that we are different ages and I am being disciplined by someone I can't see but loves me more than I love my children.

Remember that warm, fuzzy feeling you got right after a spanking? That's what I'm waiting for right now.

2005-05-30T07:32:00.000-05:00

Me and our youngest, Wayne, taken at 11:30pm because he wasn't sleepy. He had to share the joy!!

Date Night

2005-05-28T07:27:00.000-05:00

As I entered my 20's, I started to see two different approaches to married life. One side seemed to focus more on their children and the other still went on dates and kept wooing each other. I watched my father start to date my Mom again and thought at the time that she acted rather giddy, like a teenager on a date, and during the day of, or after, her eyes had an extra sparkle in them. Thus when I got married, I didn't want to loose that fondness of pursuing each other. As a guy, I new that it would be very easy to start to see her as my Mom, there to do the laundry, cook the meals, wash the dishes, keep the house, and forget that she is the woman I wooed, the woman whose heart I had so diligently sought! Now it was mine, how would I treat it?

So thus we try to go out on a date every two weeks. We often go to a little nicer restaurant and eat a leisurely meal and then go shopping if there is anything we need. Do we do anything glamorous? Not hardly! Unless you consider shopping for groceries, glamorous. But it is time for us to be "alone." To talk, share, for me to open her door, and to sneak a kiss when she's not expecting it, to hold her hand as we walk, and let her know that she is still the most important person in my life.

I have seen the effect these evenings have on my wife and if I didn't want to do it for any other reason, I would do it in a heartbeat just to see her eyes sparkle!

We are engaged to Christ and He is still wooing our hearts. There are days that feel like the wooing has long gone, but I must remind myself that while I want to take my wife on dates all the time, life must go on. So with Christ, we love the evenings of tender feelings but I must remember that there is always more work to be done, both in my heart and in life.

Someday though, "date night" will last forever.

Male and Female Blogging

2005-05-26T20:52:00.000-05:00

I have noticed something in my newness to the blogging world. There's Male blogs, and Female blogs. The male blogs tend to focus on controversy and things of weighty importance, while women tend to write from more personal, heartfelt emotions.

Why is this? Maybe it is because God made us different.

Us guys, tend to be somewhat like warriors! We divide and conquer! We show no emotion to feelings and tend to see things very strongly black or white. We must, if we are going to be strong and steady, and anchor in the storm, if you will. Why? Because God made us to love and cherish a woman, to protect her from the storms and be a rock for her to depend on.

The female bloggers tend to write about personal happenings in their hearts and lives. They love to read what struggles other ladies have and realize their not going thru it alone. They seem to have no trouble acknowledging the fact that they blew it or struggling with something personal. Why? (shhhh.... only God knows!)

What I find in real life is that ladies often "connect" faster and on a deeper plane than we men because they are willing to talk about their failings and fallings. We as men, do not do this for various reasons, most of which trace back to the fact that we are unwilling to reveal a chink in our armor and disqualify us from manhood! Ok, not quite that bad!

Take myself for instance. There have been some major upheavals in my life recently but I have only hinted at them because I fear what others will think.

Paul says to "Confess your faults, one to another, and pray for one another, that ye may be healed!" Maybe that is why we struggle with things year after year, only because we are unwilling to humble ourselves and confess that we have really blown it. But look at the pay off. A closer relationship to our brother in Christ and strength to renew the battle. Our marriages grow thru struggles and while we would never ask for them, we wouldn't trade the closeness that comes from working thru them either

So what about me, am I going to be the first one to start? I am a guy, and still working up the courage too. But let me ask you a favor, if you get a chance, would you pray for me? I desperately need God's healing and guidance right now.
Thanks.

Oh, The Joys Of Children!

2005-05-21T21:05:00.000-05:00

My children are constantly reminding me of my own halls of shame from my childhood. Take for instance this evening. The whole Stauffer tribe gets together every Saturday evening for supper and we take turns having it at each others houses. This evening went well with the men folk discussing septic systems and how to build your own chipper/mulcher. The ladies were likewise having a profitable time walking out amongst the flowers and talking over various gardening tips, and whatever else women talk about.

My eldest son has just learned the neat trick of "going" outside. We are still trying to teach him the finer points of privacy and discretion in it's use. This evening tho, he decided the time had come to do #2 without the aid of anyone older than himself or any instruction in the matter. However, while he had learned to sit on a potty, he has not learned the art of squatting in such a way as to not fill ones own pants in the process. Thus he returns to the family, quite fragrant and displaying telltale signs that not all was as it should be. I couldn't decided whether to laugh or chide him. He stood there with this look saying that he knew something was not right and that things had not turned out as he had planned but not sure what happened, or what to do now.

Needless to say, end of evening, the tub was calling!!

I remember the times of learning when I've known that I'm doing something amiss but can't for the life of me figure out what it is. Here's one story:

When we moved back from Canada to Pennsylvania, we stayed at my Grandparents place for a few months until we found a place to rent. Across the road lived a family of Amish with children the same ages as us. We spent many a evening playing with them, while they did their chores. :-) One evening I was invited to come down for supper, a first for any of our family to eat with them. I ran home and returned with the desired permission and sat down to a picnic table full of fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, salad, and pies. There may have been other foods but they escape my memory as a 10 year old. They had a big spread out since it was tobacco shearing time and they had a bunch of guys over to help them get it cut and put up in the shed. I remembered that they always pray silently so when the father bowed his head, I followed suit until I heard a pronounced sigh, meaning the prayer was ended. The food was wonderful and I did great honor to it as only a growing boy can. After we were done eating the father turned to me and said "Would you return Thanks?" I had never prayed in this setting before but being asked, thought I'd give it my best shot. I don't remember exactly what I said but I do remember noticing the laughing eyes and suppressed chuckles of the boys as we got up from the table. "Oh well," I thought, "who cares! I did the best I knew!" We ran off to play and had a great evening.

About three years later, the Amish father came up to my grandfathers place one day, as he was want to do. He started laughing and said, "Elvin, I just have to tell you something that has just tickled me for years." He proceeded to tell the same story I have except he said, "Knowing that you people are not used to returning thanks after a meal, I tried to help your grandson along by INFORMING him that we were going to return thanks. And he pipes up and prays out loud!" Both my grandfather and the Amish father had a great laugh over this though my reaction to the news was of sheer horror and it was almost a year till I worked up the courage to return for a visit.

One thing that father said that will always stick with me. He said that it was good to hear one so young, be able to voice himself that way to God." I have always remembered that. Often at our prayer meetings, the young boys will pray and when there are 15 or so, it takes quite a bit more time. But I remind myself, we are instilling in them the reverence of God and teaching them to pray is one of the best things we can do.

Well, the washer tells me it's done, now it's my turn. I hope it smells better coming out of there than it did going in!!

Mundane Monday? Eh, maybe.

2005-05-16T22:02:00.000-05:00

Ok, time for something shorter! Today I had several blessings and one not so pleasant, blessing. I have to call it a blessing or it might be a curse and I wouldn't want to say that.

First I went to Home Depot because I had received a letter in the mail saying that my rebate was denied because I was "ineligable." Huh? The local store helped me fill it out! I went in and nicely asked if there was anything they could do about it. They said that they could refund a portion of my original invoice if that would be ok with me? Fine enough here, it all spends the same way! But they had a problem, the computer kept wanting to give me $145 instead of the $105 I was due. They fussed around trying to get it to work and finally decided they didn't want to mess with it anymore and cheerfuly gave me a card worth $145! Praise God!!

Secondly, we had gotten a newer van back in March, one with two sliding doors and needed to get rid of our older one. I tried to sell it for over a month with no success until I finaly gave it to God and told Him to sell it however He could. Within two days I had a call and today he came and paid me in cash for it. And only $100 less than I was asking! Once again, Praise God!!

Thirdly, In my work as a sewing machine technician and saleman, I get a small hourly rate and then a commission on any machine I sell. Saturday, I sold a Bernina to a gal for close to 4k and she used her credit card. She had called in to pay for it before hand since she had to come so far and when we ran the card thru, our big brother Visa, calls and says that we are not allowed to do that and thus are putting the whole transaction on hold for 180 days!! We tried to reason with them and they brought it down to 30 days but that means we get NO money till the thirty days are up and they clear our name! Praise God? Well, I know I should because even though we really needed that cash now, this is God's way to help us learn to rely on Him and trust Him for the day to day. The problem is that with my arrogant pride that I keep battling with hates to have to depend on any one including God. So I guess that this is just what I need and if you have an extra prayer handy, pray that I learn my lesson!!

So long for now...

Is Not This The Land Of Beulah?

2005-05-15T16:24:00.000-05:00

This afternoon I am rejoicing in the godly heritage that I have. For our afternoon service at our church, we had a “Singspiration” as we do every second Sunday of the month. This time we turned the benches around so that we were facing each other, and split into our four parts, soprano, alto, tenor, and bass. The singing was just glorious and I realized again what rich heritage of Godly, inspirational music we have and often take for granted. The one song really touched me because it reminded me of the person who I first heard sing it. His name is Keith Yates, (more affectionately know as “Bear”) and he sang it for us one Sunday morning when he was visiting our church. Bear was born premature as one of a set of twins. The nurse made mistake in the amount of oxygen she put into his incubator and he became blind. His mother did not want to deal with a blind child and put him up for the state to take care of. Over the next 18 years, he was bumped around from one foster home to the next with the longest stint of 3 years being spent at a home run by either conservative Baptist or Mennonite people, I forget which. It was there that he found Jesus and developed a deep love for the great hymns of the faith. To this day he can sing more of the songs in our traditional songbooks than I can and recognizes most of all of them. I won’t go into his entire story but about ten years ago, he found his mother and placed a call to her. She told him that she didn’t need him then and still doesn’t now. His father would often come around and steal from Bear when times where tough. Yet thru it all, Bear has kept a wonderful attitude towards the Savior and still trusts people. He Stood in our church and sang this song:

I am dwelling on the mountain, where the golden sunlight gleams
O’er a land whose wondrous beauty, far exceeds my fondest dreams;
Where the air is pure, celestial, laden with the breath of flow’rs,
They are blooming by the fountain, ’neath the amaranthine bow’rs.

Refrain: Is not this the land of Beulah? Blessed, blessed land of light,
Where the flowers bloom forever, and the sun is always bright!

I can see far down the mountain, where I wandered weary years,
Often hindered in my journey by the ghosts of doubts and fears;
Broken vows and disappointments, thickly sprinkled all the way,
But the Spirit led, unerring, to the land I hold today.

I am drinking at the fountain, where I ever would abide;
For I’ve tasted life’s pure river, and my soul is satisfied;
There’s no thirsting for life’s pleasures, nor adorning, rich and gay,
For I’ve found a richer treasure, one that fadeth not away.

Tell me not of heavy crosses, nor of burdens hard to bear,
For I’ve found this great salvation, makes each burden light appear;
And I love to follow Jesus, gladly counting all but dross,
Worldly honors all forsaking, for the glory of the cross.

Oh, the cross has wondrous glory! Oft I’ve proved this to be true;
When I’m in the way so narrow, I can see a pathway through;
And how sweetly Jesus whispers: “Take the cross, thou need’st not fear,
For I’ve tried the way before thee,” and the glory lingers near.

Oh to be there when Bear open his eyes for the first time and sees JESUS! He whom he trusted tho he could not see, and followed, tho painful that may be.
So many times I lose sight of the Savior. Not because I’ve lost my sight, but because I’ve changed my focus on Him who gave me sight.
Can I, can you sing this song with Bear? Can I truly say, “…there’s no thirsting or life’s pleasures?” Or, “…worldly honors all forsaking, for the glory of the cross?" I pray that I can, for one day we all shall.

To Every Generation

2005-05-13T12:54:00.000-05:00

Last night we started to cut our supply of firewood for the winter. I know, I know, it's only May and we are still burning the wood stored from last winter. But I would rather cut wood now, than in the summer while being feasted on by our Minnesota state bird, the mosquito! It is different this year though because this is the first year that I am in charge of the job. Here's why.

When I was 18, my father saw how easy it was for me to blow my money on things that don't really matter, ie. stereos, computers, hunting stuff. He encouraged me to build a "daughty house" on the back of our property. For those of you who don't know, a daughty house is a house that the newly weds move into after the wedding and then when their family gets too large for the house, the parents often have a empty nest and they swap houses. We started by tearing down two houses and reusing the lumber to start the new little house. It took 6 years to build but whenever I had some extra money, I would buy more building materials for the house. Finale I met my wife in July 2000 and where married three and one-half months later. (I know, I know, short courtship but that is another story I'll have to tell later) We lived in there till this past Feb. when we decided as a family that the time for the great swap had come! WOW! What relief to finally be able to stretch out a bit!

But now the other part. Now that we are in the "big" house, I realize all the work that goes into a large property. Cut 14-16 cords of wood a year, keep the driveways plowed in the winter, 2 acres of lawn to mow in the summer, 3/4 acre garden to maintain, besides being a husband and father to my family! Sometimes I confess it feels overwhelming. I feel torn in so many areas and doing so poorly in what I can get done that it makes me wonder at times, "why bother?"

It's at times like these that I have to run to the promise God gave to Joshua, "...as thy days, so shall thy strength be." I must take these struggles to the Lord and allow Him to set my schedule for only then will I have any sort of peace in the midst of this storm.

I don't know when it will end, but for me, I know who will be there with me when it does!

Funny Conversation From Our Store:
Employer: "Boy, did I have a rough night night last night. It felt like I had knives in my stomach. I didn't sleep much all night"
Employee:"Where did you eat last night?"
Employer:" ***** ****** Bar and Grill"
Employee: "Oh yeah, they have great knives!

Me, Write?

2005-05-10T21:05:00.000-05:00

I still cannot believe that I am really doing this! For all of you blessed people that can just sit down at a keyboard and just let your thoughts roll out onto paper, I have one thing to say, I am not like that!!!!

I can line up my thoughts as easily as you can train a chicken to use the privey! It gets worse. I was homeschooled my last 6 years and my parents said that for me to graduate, I had to do a term paper at least six pages long on the subject of my choosing. I started out fine. I did my interviews, read loads of information, but when I sat down with the paper in front of me to start writing, my thoughts all jumbled themselves up and then left! Without giving me their three week notice either! I am now 28 and still do not have a diploma. I confess I am a little embarrassed to go back and do it this late in the game. I mean, get real! Are they going to throw a graduation party for a married, 30 year old?!! How embarrassing!

I can speak just fine! I can hold up three sides of the conversation even if there are only two of us in it! In fact when I was asked to fill in for my dad in our pulpit this past winter, I thought for sure that I was going to run out of material before the sermon was 15 minutes old. But NOOO, when I looked at the clock at the end, I had "preached" for 55 Minutes! ( My notes barley filled three pages) I just can' seem to get what I want to say from my head to my fingertips!

So you ask me, why start now? For a couple reasons. Lately I have been challenged to think what our live would be like if the great writers of the past had not taken the time out of their busy days to write for my edification or enjoyment now. Would we have the scriptures we do, or the biographies of great ones of the past? What would we do if we never could read the lessons of someone else's life? While I will never be a great writer, I want to put down the things that God is doing in my life and maybe someday they will mean something to my children, grandchildren, or whoever is unfortunate to have to read them. It will never get any easier to start and while I could wow you with all sort of info on computers, sewing machines, photography or such, I need to knuckle down and learn to write. I hate to think what my life lessons would be like if subjected to the trial of "whisper down the lane" telling thru the years.
Secondly, me being a prideful creature, I know that if people are seeing this, it will serve as a good swift kick in the seat of the pants to have to update this and write on a regular basis.

Whether this is ever read by ya'll or not is not the question. (even tho I would like to hear from you once in a while :-) It is more about developing me into who God wants me to be and if it blesses you to, then we've just been doused with the same blessing.

A Tribute to My Mothers

2005-05-09T22:34:00.000-05:00

In my life as I grew up, Mother was always something of a fixture and that is how I often saw her. Just as you get light by turning on a light switch, so when you would get a skinned knee, Mother was there. When I would wake up in the middle of the night with a bad dream, or get hurt feelings when someone at school said something that wounded me, Mother was always there. It never occurred to me to wonder if she would have liked to be somewhere else, or if she would like to work at the job she used to. I never questioned why she always had breakfast ready when I got up, or supper ready when Daddy came home from work, that was what mothers were supposed to do! I felt that God must have given my mother to me instead of the other way around. Now that I am a new father and am watching the making of a mother before my eyes, I have a greater understanding and a much greater appreciation for all that is wrapped up in the word Mother.

It had never occurred to me that it was a real chore to get up in the middle of the night with me and that the only reason was because you loved me. I never realized the choice you made when you had us children instead of holding on to the world’s idea of a nice figure. I never considered that maybe you would have liked to have a career outside of our home but you chose instead to do with a little less and in some cases to do without so that you could spend our childhood’s with us. I never realized that headaches can hurt so badly and that you can’t just stop when you have one. I never realized how scary it must have been to teach us children at home when you didn’t know some of the subjects that well. I never realized that naps were just as much for mothers as for children, and often you needed more than we would allow. I never realized that you don’t know everything and that you can’t be everywhere at once. I never knew about late nights praying for your children and for your wandering son to come home. I never realized the powerful example you set for us children, by your willingness to submit to your husband. I didn’t know that you were setting the groundwork for us to submit to Daddy as well as to our heavenly Father. I didn’t know about the weight of responsibility laid on you and Daddy, to teach us the ways of God. You would always hug me so tight, and I didn’t know it was because you didn’t want me to grow up too fast, or that you knew all too soon, I would be gone. Mother was always someone we came home too; I never thought what it must be like for her to see her brood grow up and go away. I never thought about these things, they just were! Now as I face the daunting task of father hood, there are times that I wish I could go back and be snuggled into Mommy’s lap, to hear her soft words of encouragement, and know that it will be OK.

But now I am a Father, and am watching with new appreciation, the transformation of a young lady into a mother. Not just a woman that bore a child but a mother, and all the bittersweet love that goes into the name. And so I would like to thank the two mothers in my life; the one who bore me, and the one who bears my children, for all these things that you have done to take this cold and heartless world and turn it into a warm and loving home. To me, heaven will be a greater version of the home Mother helped make for me. Where Jesus is always there to comfort us, to wipe away our tears, and soothe our bleeding hearts. He’ll hold us in His lap and let us listen to His beating heart. Then, all the pain of life, the parts that even mothers can’t soothe away, will disappear as Jesus holds us close and echoes what all mothers have whispered, “It’s OK, your safe at home now, and I’ll always love you”!

Happy Mothers Day!

2005-05-09T21:16:00.000-05:00

Stauffer Tribe, July 2004